I had a happy 9/11

I spent a good chunk of the late afternoon and evening at my buddy Mike's house down in Undisclosed Location, Virginia. My goddaughter pronounced my gifts "awesome" (a card, a CafePress tote bag, and two books related to her current interest in Egyptology), and the food I ate was equally awesome. Good company, good times-- the sort of therapy I've needed. Togetherness.

That reminds me: I didn't write my usual 9/11 remembrance this year, but I'll say this: if there's one thing I've learned from my own experience with tragedy over this past year and a half, it's the vital importance of being there when someone is in crisis. There's simply no substitute for presence-- not cards, not emails, not phone calls. As nice as those gestures are, they can't hold a candle to a hug or to a warm palm or to kind words spoken from three feet away. A person in crisis finds out very quickly who, exactly, is willing to invest the time and effort to be there. I can only hope that the friends and relatives who remember the ones they lost on that tragic day nine years ago have access to their own circles of care. How sad, how very sad, to be alone at such a time.


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