Thanks for letting this conversation roll, papaw... I know it's a risk, on your part. I'm glad that you keep things in "check." Politics wind up in a bad place. But, I think shared experiences have a place here among friends..... but it is a fine line!
I have a different experience than I'm sure any of you have had. I'm pretty sure no one will understand my experience. My experience with 9/11 is that I don't remember it at all. Those of you that know me fairly well know that I went through a series of 17 ECTs. (electric shock therapy.... think Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cookoos Nest).
It would be impossible for anyone to know what it's like to have a series of electrodes stuck on both sides of your brain in order to brace for an induced seizure. Anyhow, apparently, during that time period is when 9/11 happened. The folks that I lived with said that every time I came back from the hospital they had to explain to me, AGAIN, about 9/11.
I suppose I was blessed in not having to deal with the immediate trauma of 9/11. But, my friends were faced with the burden of telling me over and over again about what had happened within our country.... 9/11. So, I guess I relived 9/11 nine times or so. But, as much of my life was at that time, everything seemed like a dream, a constant nightmare.
I have a niece and a nephew. I have this constant feeling that at some point in their lives they will be asked to interview persons that lived through 9/11. I have this awfull feeling that they'll ask me about how I lived through 9/11. I dread that day, because all I could tell them is that I don't remember that day.
I've made it a point to never have kids. I don't know how I'll ever tell my kids that years of my memory are gone. At some point I'm going to have to "fess up" and tell them that their "Aunt Birdie" spent months in a mental ward. That will lead to me having to tell them I spent weeks in hospitals, which led to involuntary ECTs. That will lead to those kids really wondering what all of the scars on my wrists, arms, and hands are from..... and I don't know how I'll ever explain that.
And so, I'm probably the only person in America that doesn't remember 9/11. And I'm probably the only person that was told about 9/11 time and after time again. I suppose 17 times..... that's how many times persons had to explain to me about 9/11. But, I didn't have that immediate horror that our country must have felt on 9/11. I think my mother tried to call me when that all took place. I don't think she knew I was already in the hospital at that time. But, I hate that she was worried to death about me over 9/11.... she knew that would send me off "the deep end." She didn't know I'd already fallen off the cliff.
I know so many persons have lost loved ones in 9/11, and my heart and prayers go out to those folks.