Friday, 10 September 2021
Dun Dun. Strike the Law & Order opening. It’s the final countdown. Less than a week to go until we’re back to Folkestone, England. I have waited for this moment for three years. And finally it’s upon us. I have mixed emotions this moment. Note the date. 10 September 2021. It’s Euro Militare weekend. As it has been for me since 2003. Eighteen years of a certain September weekend in Folkestone.
But this year we’re off to Folkestone for a different reason.
It’s also just one day more until the 20th Anniversary of 9/11. I can’t get my head around that. 20 years has got behind me in an instant. How life changed that beautiful sunny early Autumn morning. A morning like today, half a world away. A beautiful, calm September morning. I look at those rays of light with hope those who died that day are up there somewhere. Part of those rays of light. Ah. What a tragic day it was.
And how my life has changed since.
Nat Geo (Used to be National Geographic) has produced an excellent 7 part documentary on 9/11 made for the 20th anniversary of the attacks. I’m watching it now on AppleTV. It’s the most in depth programme on 9/11 I’ve yet seen and it fills me with deep sadness. They have found so much footage I have never seen, much of it heartbreaking.
Humanity.
It’s the word that comes to my mind. How awful that day was. Yet, how it brought out the best in people. After watching the first episode I hugged my child a little tighter and told my wife I loved her a few more times than usual. The suffering of innocence to terror is horrific and unacceptable. But, here we are twenty years on and it feels like nothing much was accomplished. Still we live in fear. Thankfully my family is at home 11 September. As I was, twenty years ago at home in Studio City, California.
Hopefully all remains peaceful as our little world continues to go round and round.
Humanity.
Be safe. Take care of each other.