On September 11th I was teaching at Shoemaker High School in Killeen, Texas.  I remember that day as if it just happened yesterday. When I got up that morning to go to work, I did not realize that it would be the worst day I would experience in U.S. History.  I was in the middle of teaching my World Geography Honors class when my co-teacher interrupted me and called me out into the hall way because she had something to tell me.  At first I thought it had to something to do with my husband because he was in the military then. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to hear it because the look on her face indicated it was not good news.  She had tears streaming down her face and I was afraid to ask her what, but I knew I had to find out what was wrong.  It felt like I was stuck in a bad nightmare and I was afraid to open up my eyes least I saw something so horrible that it would make me scream.  When she told me about the planes slamming into the buildings in New York, I was in disbelief and total denial.  Then I started to shake and cried with her  and we just held each other there.  I told her it must be a mistake because I was just there in New York in August and took pictures of the twin towers.When I was calm enough I went back inside the class and told my students what happened and they freaked out as well.  They were so scared that we were going to be attack because our school was next to Fort Hood, the biggest military base in the free world.  What we did not fathom at that moment was the affects September 11th would have on their lives and those of their family.  Most of them had military parents and they would be sent to Iraq in the following months.  Some of the students would sadly loose a parent and/ or relative in the global fight against terrorism. Knowing that their parents were over there and in harms way made it difficult and even sometimes impossible to focus on their class work.  Sadly, some of them had to force  the fear of losing their parents to the back of their minds in order to be able to care of their younger siblings.  Amazingly, they were able to take over the roles of the absent mom or dad until the closest relative showed up to help them. Those kids should not have to grow up over night, but they had to do what was necessary.  They are my inspirations.

I will forever remember September 11th and my former students who went through this tragic event with me. With love and remembrance to all my former military families.

Crash

One of my favorite movie is Crash not because it has an interesting story line; but because it made me think about how it is so easy for some of us to talk and interact with total strangers without fear while some of us are too leary or frighten to even say hi. I think we have become so fixated on the belief that the world is a big bad place and that there are bad people living in it who will hurt us that we forget about the fact that there is a ying and a yang to everything.  Have some of us become so skeptical and hardened that we forget about the goodness of others? Have some of us become so enamored with that picture of the “world gone crazy” that we don’t take dare take a chance give others the benefit of the doubt? Do we only interact with people whom we think we can trust or whom we have known forever because we let our sense of self-preservation  dominate our every move, thought and action? Do we purposely let our own insecurity, prejudice and bigotry rule us because it is easier than to confront the truth about ourselves? I think one of the best way to discover who we are as a person is through our interactions with others and their reactions to us. The movie guy from IMDB (the internet movie database) said, “People are born with good hearts, but they grow up and learn prejudices.” I have to say I am one of those naive people who still have faith in the “goodness of humanity” that I allow people into my life and give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove me wrong. 

The movie starts out with these thought provoking lines,”It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.” Have we become so busy and self-absorb that we don’t take the time to be civil to each other or total strangers because we think they will expect more from us? I think sometimes we need to be reminded about the pleasure we can get and give in our interaction with others through a simple and heartfelt  ” Hello!How are you?!” and make the other person really believe that we are asking because we really care and that it’s not just an impersonal greeting.  All of us friends, lovers, families and strangers need to “crash” into each other as a reminder that we are all human and significant to each other.  Knowing that someone cares for us, makes life worth living and savoring. I’ll end with words from one of my favorite hero, the honorable Dalai Lama:

“Consider the following. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others’ actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others’ activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.”