hummingwolf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hummingwolf) wrote2002-09-12 08:34 am
hummingwolf) wrote2002-09-12 08:34 am
Entry tags:
One year ago
From a mailing list I'm on:
Hummingwolf
Wed, 12 Sep 2001 07:20:13 -0700 (PDT)
It's hard to say which is worse. Hearing no planes overhead, or hearing planes all night long and knowing what they are. Hearing the normal daily sounds here, now--traffic on the highways in spite of all the closings, bus going by one block over, freight trains a bit over a mile away, someone in their garage with power tools building something, and the planes flying overhead. If you can forget what those planes must be, the only thing missing, the only thing making it clear that this is not an ordinary September morning, is the absence of children in the school field. No sounds of playing at all on such a beautiful, sunny day.
I did manage to get some sleep last night, though my dreams were filled with fire. I woke up at about 6:20 this morning, hearing something... I still don't know what it was, but there was something loud, resembling car horns or perhaps alarms, with a definite, seemingly deliberate rhythm to it. A few seconds later, I heard sirens, what sounded like the entire firehouse gearing up to go somewhere, deal with something. The sirens went on for ten minutes. I turned on the news radio station, wondering if there was something new that I should know about.
As I lay there, hearing over the sirens the sound of more military planes flying high overhead, listening to the news of the morning which sounded exactly like the news of last evening--fire still burning, we know people are dead, but we don't know how many, we don't know, we don't know, we don't know--the shock of yesterday finally dissolved; and for the first time since yesterday morning, I cried. I'm crying now.
Hummingwolf
Thu, 13 Sep 2001 06:19:47 -0700 (PDT)
Haven't heard sirens for hours. Certainly haven't been as many sirens this morning & last night as there had been in the hours before. Planes going overhead, but not quite such a constant rumbling as before. Students back to school across the alley, middle-school kids in gym uniforms going around the track, maybe a bit more subdued than usual but they're trying to get back into the rhythm after a couple of days off after all.
I did see children playing when I was out walking last night too. Little kids with big sticks pointing them at each other, yelling "Pow! Pow! Pow!" Playing.
I both love and hate my species. People sometimes ask me, "How can you believe we were created in God's image? Look at all we do to each other." So I look at what we've seen on TV, both the carnage and the heroism, people cheering the evil and people helping the victims, and the way the helpers can turn into haters at a moment's notice, I have to believe that we all have something of God and something of Satan within us. We're all angels and we're all devils. It's just a question of which side of us will win. I pray we make the right choices.
It's another beautiful day in Washington, DC. Warm, but an autumnal warmth, with the sunlight possessing that peculiar quality it always has this time of year, a quality I can only describe as elegiac. Elegy for all that's been lost.
I wonder how much classwork I'll manage to get done today.
Hummingwolf
Fri, 14 Sep 2001 17:02:27 -0700 (PDT)
Could there *be* a stranger fashion statement than camouflage gear topped with a glowing orange vest?
Also odd seeing lighted candles lining the bumpers of fire trucks tonight, though that was still beautiful to see.
Was leafing through the latest George Carlin book while wasting time in Borders after class today. This is either a really good or incredibly bad time to read the bits about airport security.
Hummingwolf
Wed, 12 Sep 2001 07:20:13 -0700 (PDT)
It's hard to say which is worse. Hearing no planes overhead, or hearing planes all night long and knowing what they are. Hearing the normal daily sounds here, now--traffic on the highways in spite of all the closings, bus going by one block over, freight trains a bit over a mile away, someone in their garage with power tools building something, and the planes flying overhead. If you can forget what those planes must be, the only thing missing, the only thing making it clear that this is not an ordinary September morning, is the absence of children in the school field. No sounds of playing at all on such a beautiful, sunny day.
I did manage to get some sleep last night, though my dreams were filled with fire. I woke up at about 6:20 this morning, hearing something... I still don't know what it was, but there was something loud, resembling car horns or perhaps alarms, with a definite, seemingly deliberate rhythm to it. A few seconds later, I heard sirens, what sounded like the entire firehouse gearing up to go somewhere, deal with something. The sirens went on for ten minutes. I turned on the news radio station, wondering if there was something new that I should know about.
As I lay there, hearing over the sirens the sound of more military planes flying high overhead, listening to the news of the morning which sounded exactly like the news of last evening--fire still burning, we know people are dead, but we don't know how many, we don't know, we don't know, we don't know--the shock of yesterday finally dissolved; and for the first time since yesterday morning, I cried. I'm crying now.
Hummingwolf
Thu, 13 Sep 2001 06:19:47 -0700 (PDT)
Haven't heard sirens for hours. Certainly haven't been as many sirens this morning & last night as there had been in the hours before. Planes going overhead, but not quite such a constant rumbling as before. Students back to school across the alley, middle-school kids in gym uniforms going around the track, maybe a bit more subdued than usual but they're trying to get back into the rhythm after a couple of days off after all.
I did see children playing when I was out walking last night too. Little kids with big sticks pointing them at each other, yelling "Pow! Pow! Pow!" Playing.
I both love and hate my species. People sometimes ask me, "How can you believe we were created in God's image? Look at all we do to each other." So I look at what we've seen on TV, both the carnage and the heroism, people cheering the evil and people helping the victims, and the way the helpers can turn into haters at a moment's notice, I have to believe that we all have something of God and something of Satan within us. We're all angels and we're all devils. It's just a question of which side of us will win. I pray we make the right choices.
It's another beautiful day in Washington, DC. Warm, but an autumnal warmth, with the sunlight possessing that peculiar quality it always has this time of year, a quality I can only describe as elegiac. Elegy for all that's been lost.
I wonder how much classwork I'll manage to get done today.
Hummingwolf
Fri, 14 Sep 2001 17:02:27 -0700 (PDT)
Could there *be* a stranger fashion statement than camouflage gear topped with a glowing orange vest?
Also odd seeing lighted candles lining the bumpers of fire trucks tonight, though that was still beautiful to see.
Was leafing through the latest George Carlin book while wasting time in Borders after class today. This is either a really good or incredibly bad time to read the bits about airport security.
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