The day the world changed

My eyes hurt from a long day. 

My brain is trying to work its way out of a fog.  

And tonight we decided we should check in with Levi on his homework...

A quick check of the grades indicated he's mostly keeping up on work, except in social studies... which I find so odd because it is his favorite subject.   So we got to work.   He and I finished a map of Africa. Then we looked at his social studies fair project.   He chose to focus on 9/11.

To him this is just another historical date.   Like any other date in history,  just some facts about something that happened in the past.  There are lots of picture for him to look at,  videos to watch,  lots of data... but no emotion. 

He doesn't understand that for us who lived through it,  it is an etching in our minds.  

I remember being at work,  when someone rushed in and told Jane,  the receptionist that there had been a plane crash.   They didn't have much information,  but it was serious.  We tried to call out to get more information, but all you could get were busy signals. Every line in the country was being used. Information traveled a bit slower those days, but it wasn't long before we were seeing the wreckage.  Then we heard about a second and third flight. Rumors of a fourth.  We weren't quite sure how to respond.   

People wanted people near that day.  We huddled together talking at work. Trying to decide if we were safe or not.   Trying to figure out the next right thing. 

I had to pick up my friend from school,  where he was working for the day.  He had experienced it all with high schoolers.  He was numb from the floods of emotions that engulfed the children that day. We went home to try to decide what to do next.   

There was shock.

There was fear. 

There was anger. 

There was unity. 

There was sadness. 

There was comfort. 

There was courage. 

There was love. 

The world changed that day.   It's not just words on page,  or pictures of days gone by. 

How do you help someone understand?