The Gift From 9/11: Love, Actually

Current mood:  contemplative
Category: Life

It’s my turn to blog at Sensual N Secret today and here is what I posted:

I wasn’t going to blog about the events of September 11 but it is my day to post here and although I had planned an entirely different subject matter, I have to talk about the day that has changed the way we all live and love.
From the moment the violent attack started on our country- I sat glued to my TV watching the horrific events unfold – to this very second, I am reminded each and every day that it happened.
Terror has changed us.
For me personally, I can’t drive to the movie studio where I freelance to pick up script work without my messenger bag being searched or my car trunk thoroughly investigated. I can’t invite friends or family to the studio’s free walking tours anymore, since they have been scrapped in the interests of security.
Like other romance writers everywhere, I lament that you can no longer accompany your loved ones right up to the departure gate at the airport. So romantic…alas, those days are gone.
Nor can I get through security wearing shoes, a belt, or carry food items anymore.
An island-wide blackout on Oahu on December 27, had all of us fearful it was a terrorist attack, since President Obama was on island.
I keep thinking of the old Japanese lady I encountered on the street, sobbing hysterically because she had been on island when Pearl Harbor was bombed and her family put in internment camps.
She thought it was all happening again.
We are all, forever changed, just a bit genetically different…but the lessons learned I hope, make us all live and love just a little bit fiercer.
My brother Alex stopped his frantic world wide travel for work, to be home with his children more. “It taught me there is no such thing as quality time with children,” he told me. “They need me all the time.”
My youngest brother Anthony learned when he picks far flung places to travel to and play music that he needs to do more than find the nearest pub or club that will accommodate him. He now soaks up the local color…something that has seeped into his soul and allowed him to paint what he has experienced.
Me, it taught me what I always knew. To quote the movie, Love Actually – which addresses this very point – it really is all around. I look for it, I find it and follow it. I write about it and I am blessed to have readers who read it.
What I saw on that terrible day was that we are a strong country and we will not be afraid to live and love.
And what about you? What did you learn? How has your life changed?
Aloha oe,

A.J.

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