One last look behind

Tomorrow being the 20^th anniversary of 9/11, a lot of people may be thinking about those days, and how everything changed utterly. As I dodge in and out of reflecting on those events, here are some of the images that flash in my head.

Finding out about the first strike on the World Trade Center from the manager of the company canteen, where I was working in the UK. It was three work days after I’d been told that my company was breaking my ex-pat contract and I’d be sent home, probably to be laid off. Dot bomb, you know.

Watching a wall o’ TVs in the reception area of a spinoff company (long since folded) as the same videos ran over and over.

Driving home to London on the M4 and seeing the flags at GSK’s UK headquarters at half-staff and starting to sob.

Phone calls and texts from colleague-friends offering comfort and support. English, Welsh, German, Italian, Kiwi.

Taking a long-planned holiday to Florence and Siena on the 12^th; chaos at the airport; arriving long after midnight and no car to take me into town; a grotty hotel room in Florence and a long train ride to Siena.

Getting a snotogram from UK HR about when I was going to turn in my company car, mobile and laptop…because there was “concern” that I might somehow take them with me.

A miserable, chaotic flight on UAL when I was finally repatriated in late October, but being met at Dulles by a friend, who took me home for my first night back in the States.

Managing to buy a new car and get a loan just before my company laid me off, and making sure I turned in my company-paid rental car to Hertz with as empty a gas tank as I could manage.

Driving down Route 7 and listening to NPR’s Scott Simon interview Natalie Merchant; among other things, she sang “Motherland”, and I kept driving down the road until I got to Tower Records, where I bought the CD.

You know—people keep wanting to return to “normal”, and I get that. But whatever normal is planning on being, it won’t be what it was before COVID19. Just like it wasn’t like what we used to call normal before 9/11. It never is—you don’t ever step into the same river twice. We’re just accustomed to the shifts being slower and more subtle, not having commercial aircraft ploughing into buildings or an overnight global pandemic.

But that’s where we are now.

So, here’s Natalie Merchant, singing “Motherland”.