Where were you when the world stopped turning

It’s tough to write a silly blog weekly (or weakly as the case may be), as it is but even tougher on a day like 9/11. I remember it clearly, which is interesting as there are so many other things I do not remember but that day is burned into my mind.

I was working, driving a dump truck, delivering landscaping supplies when I got a phone call from my then wife telling me what had happened – my first reaction was holy shit balls and the second was to mention a name that my wife had not heard of but someone Seal Team Six took care of some years later – apparently I read too much. I caught some TV footage at a nearby hair salon that had a TV in it then headed off to do my job, it was a weird ass day.

A good friend of mine was in the city at the time and was just telling me of his day, he was not sure what to do but stocked up on beer, drank for the evening then tried to volunteer to help at the site. He was without a union card or hardhat so was turned away but his first true reaction was to help.  He talked about how the people cheered the fire trucks as they raced to the site and about the smell, I am pretty sure he will never forget the smell.

On a completely different note a few years before that I got on a flight from Auckland to Wellington a few hours after the sneaky forward passing French had beaten the All Blacks in the 99 Rugby World Cup. Not a word was spoken; it seemed like the church bells all were broken. We, as a nation, were in shock.

Now I am in no way trying to compare those 2 events, I am not that much of a fuckwit. They were both days when, in different ways, we questioned our beliefs and the world around us. The world started turning again, however it would never be the same.

We all have our stories from our life and in the age-old tradition of the bards these stories need to be shared. Sitting around a dinner table with your face lit by some type of mobile device does not promote conversation. There is wisdom to be learnt, laughter to be had and generational histories that are being lost because we are stuck in an age of electronic media. A bit ironic really as this blog is, in effect, a form of electronic media however I will get the chance to tell some stories this weekend to my kids, hopefully they will remember them and pass them down.

I am going to take a moment today to give up my thoughts and prayers for the victims and survivors of 9/11. To thank those first responders and those that helped the next day and the many days after that. Special thoughts to the family of Lieutenant Colonel Kip Taylor (who was in the Pentagon) for no special reason apart from the fact that my son and his friends wrote ‘I remember’ on his memorial at the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon in May.

That’s all I have for today, short and sweet, not at all like me.

So work hard, play hard, earn your inspiration and give thanks for those that have given us the ability to do so.

Happy Poets Day