The Severed Cortex

I suppose I should, like the rest of the nation today, be reminiscent about 9/11. I feel some obligation to write something. I'm sure all I'll do is ramble.

What I really feel is ambivalence about it all. I get the feeling that everyone else feels the same way. No one talked about it at work today; at least not with me. I had several conversations with others so the opportunity was there, we just chose to talk about work or our personal lives. I read that the NFL Sunday Night game pitting Peyton Manning's Colts vs. his brother Eli's Giants got more TV viewers than the ABC docu-drama on 9/11 (thank god), and the CBS replay of their 9/11 documentary. That leads me to belive that it's not isolated to me and my co-workers. I'm sure there are some who are still stunned from the attacks and the 5 year anniversary stirs up nothing but unsettling memories. I'm not talking about the families who were directly affected, obviously they are not ambivalent about it. I mean those who still live in shock from it. Not surprisingly, I never got to that point. I accepted it as something that just happened.

It's strange to feel this way, but I have some ideas why. Oddly enough I have a mix of 9/11 connections. I have sort of a somewhat direct connection to the events; fellow co-worker Kevin Boyer was on the 70th floor of the building hit by the first plane. He escaped luckily. To listen to him tell the story is absolutely spell-binding. I'm mesmerized by it when he tells it. I also have an indirect connection to the attacks. At the time I was in San Diego when it happened. That's San Diego, CA ... as far away from New York as you can be and still be in the contiguous United States. The night before, Dave Matthews and I drove to a dive bar and drank beer while watching the seasons first Monday Night Football game. I'm not saying that San Diego didn't care that 9/11 happened. The local news covered it, but the angle covered there was all about how it affected the Otai/Mesa border crossing. Even on Day 1 part of the country was back to 'how does it affect me'. I think this is why I'm ambivalent about it. I have mixed perspectives of the events. I was so far away from Ground Zero when it happened, but again I know someone personally who lived through it.

All that said though, it really comes down to 'how does it affect me'. I can honestly say that other than the job our incompetent government does in figuring out how to keep it from happening again, it affects me none. And now tonight it comes full circle. Tonight's Monday Night Football game (OK, arguably there are 2 tonight) is San Diego and Oakland. I'm not in San Diego today, but I assume the town is talking football. I'm not saying that's bad, hell all I'm doing is posting a blog message that will only be read by search engine bots and the occasional Google user with too much time on their hands. Who am I to pass judgment? I'm just saying that the anniversary for everyone is all about how it affects them. For most of us that is zero.