We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail

I was at work in the Government facility I was working at, at the time. I was listening to the radio at my desk when they broke in and said that a plane had hit one of the towers. They said they thought it was a cesna that was messed up or something.
Right after that a lady came running to my desk with tears in her eyes and said I needed to get to the media room. It's a room with stadium seating where all the important people make their presentations, and there are two wall sized screens. They had CNN on both screens. I walked in and couldn't wrap my brain around it. The place was packed and the sound was turned up and here is this smoking tower on a screen that goes from floor to ceiling. Then we all watched as the second plane hit. The people were like zombies...just frozen in shock. Some were crying, most were just staring with their mouths slightly open. A call came over my radio and I left to answer. Our Lt. came over the radio and said that they were ordering an immediate lockdown of all facilities, nobody in or out, and each post was to acknowledge. I acknowledged and ran to secure the building. I then came back to the media room, and started feeling very inadequate. It dawned on me that if something were to happen here, and we survived, people would be turning to me for help and direction. I was numb. I felt like one of those people that you hear about that watch someone get attacked and don't do anything to help. I was small...

I found out later that a good High School friend of mine lost her husband in the attack. He was on the plane that hit the Pentagon. During the running of the torch for the 2002 Olympics, she was the person that ran the torch up to the White House and handed it to the President. Her name is Elizabeth.

I hate that they show the footage every year. I hate that Hollywood made a movie about it, even if Nick Cage was in it and it was done tastefully. It's still too close for me. I don't need reminders, because I'll never forget.

May God Bless you guys (and girls) in our military. You serve so we don't live in fear of this everyday, and you never get the credit, respect, or treatment you deserve.

The Fallacies of Adulthood

So here's a quicky because it's late and I'm tired and my brain has had it's share of overloaded...brain things.
Just a moment ago I had actual digital proof of the fallacies of the word "adult". When you hear the word "adult", what springs into your mind? Go on, think a minute..I can wait.
Some of us think of drinking alcohol, some of us think of having responsibilities like family and work and religious type stuffs. Some of us think of certain kinds of movies, while others think of drinking alcohol while watching certain types of movies despite responsibilities like family and work.
The point is that there is a line, or a point, or a pointed line that we cross at some point in our lives that defines when we grow out of childish acts and behaviors and take upon us the mantle of "adulthood." We have decided that it is high time we stop thinking of just ourselves and start to actually see the world around us. We decide that we need and want certain relationships. We decide to take on those things that we otherwise thought unimportant. For some of us, it is the time that we flee with all abandon from the collective ranks of "The Oblivious" (see prior posts for an explanation)
And while some of us retain certain childish qualities, such as a need to "play", or a need to rediscover something we thought lost within ourselves, there are still others who, though they may qualify physically and sometimes mentally as an "adult", still have not shed the protective shell that is our childhood. And with that, they retain some basic belief that they may still do, say, or act as they wish and because "I am an adult, I therefore cannot act childish."
I will admit that I still sometimes long to waste the day playing in a sandbox filled with small toy cars, tractors, and sand shovels used for flinging out the cat poop from that damn siamese that lives across the street. I, on occasion, wish to debate the benefits of having a chainsaw for an arm over a sword or a pair of nunchaku. And yes, innocently enough, I still yearn to roam the neighborhood at three in the morning trying to find a place to hide from the police who, strangely enough, are patrolling the streets looking for the person who set fire to Mrs. Finklestein's favorite lilac bush.
But of course, none of those compare to the occasional longing to be running naked, helter skelter, from my best friend's mother whose eyes I have just graced with a view of my own particulalry hairless buttocks...or ass, if you wish.
I suppose, with yearnings such as those, that nobody can blame me or wish me ill for reflecting upon the early years of my life that were the veritable building blocks of the "adult" that I am now.
But despite all of that, I still do not wish to "act" childish....usually anyway.
Think about those around you. Do they act like "adults"? Or are they merely kids, or teenagers, wearing adult clothes (or not!) and pretending to have outgrown the very personality traits and behaviors that they exhibit on a day to day basis?
This post is dedicated to a person who will never realize that this post could ever be about them.