9/11 a year later, and LOVE…
September 9th, 2002With 9/11 coming close, I decided to add back my old posts from my blog back in version 4.0 You can see the posts HERE
I stumbled on a whole cache of 9/11 videos from searches on google, and now that I’ve watched them I can’t friggin sleep. I’m still debating to post the videos up here. I guess if enough people send me emails to post them up, then I will.
Anyways, the thing about 9/11 that hits home, is that the fact that it personally took 2 friends of mine away as well as a few businsses contacts that I had made over the years.
On top of that, there was a damn good chance that I was to be in Tower 2 above the 90th floor working there, had it not been a decision that I made nearly a year prior. You see, back when I was accepting job proposals between Johnson & Johnson (my current employer) and one for a very prestigious financial research group in the WTC. The thing is, the circumstances that I got the J&J job was almost like fate – the doors opened, planets lined up, etc. I don’t want to post the whole story here, but believe me, every person I tell the story to thinks its almost divine intervention. Anyhows, I got this weird feeling in my stomach every time I thought about NOT taking the J&J job. It’s like I knew that something bad would happen if I didn’t take it.
Then bang… September 11th hit, literally… Had I taken the other job, I’d be in an office above the 90th floor of Tower 2, still alive, but helpless to escape. Had I taken that job, I’d have to accept the fate along with the 3,500 people that perished in those towers, that I had to accept the fact that I would die there and then.
At that moment I was at a conference in NJ for work, and saw the TV. My heart dropped and in that instant I thanked God for his good grace for steering me away. I then called my mom who was frantic. Why? At 8:35 she dicided not to go to a conference at the WTC. 10 minutes later she looked out her office window to see the towers flaming and later watched them from her window as they collapsed before here very eyes.
Strangely, what lasts most in my mind is not the incident itself, but how that incident brought about the worst in our own people. I listened on the EMS radio for first aid calls, so that I could help if needed be since I’m certified. A lot of thsee calls were about Indian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern, people who were getting beat up by mobs of people who were taking out their anger on them. It was insane to hear some of the stuff that was going on. The worst was of an Indian woman who was beat up by 3 white males in the basement bathroom of a restaurant in Union Square. I couldn’t believe the atrocities our own people could be capable of. Maybe that’s exactly what the terrorists wanted… To bring about the worst in us. Sun Tzu, Art of War: “It is easier to destroy the enemy from within.”
Why is there so much hate in this world? I can understant some resentment, but I simply can’t understand such deep-rooted hate that one would uslessly throw away one’s own life just to piss someone off, knowing that the impact you would create for your “cause” would be marginal, if any at all…
On a completely opposite note, last night I picked up Caroline from La Guardia Airport. Good thing there too, since JFK had to be evacuated around the same time due to some security breach. I’ve known Caroline for quite some time now, and even though we’ve only been going out for about a month, we’ve spent over 2 years together, hanging out, having long talks on the phone, and enjoying each other’s friendship. During this time, as each day went by, I liked her more and more. And the reason I was never able to get over her, was for one reason… I loved her. I loved her in every way possible, to the point that her happiness is all that mattered. And now we’re together, in an almost movie-like classic scenario of friends who become a couple. Everything is simply blissful, and it happened naturally, the way it should happen. So last night, I told her:
“Caroline I want to tell you something…” (I pause and hesitate here, debating if I should tell her) “Listen… I just want you to know…” (I hesitate again, wondering how she’ll take it) “I just wanted to say, that I love you. I’ve loved you for a long time, and just wanted to tell you that.”
(I’ve been dying to say this for such a long time – keeping it bottled up in me for months, where at that time we were just “friends” and it nearly killed me to keep it all bottled up. This is why I always watched out for her when we went out anywhere. This is why I’d scare off the skeezy boys that try to touch her. This is why I make sure she’s comfortable wherever she goes. This is why I always look out for her.)
She replies, “I love you too.” We both smile in each other’s arms. I say, “All the flowers in the world couldn’t express how much I love you. And even though they may die and wilt (she has a reputation for killing plants – so sorta a double pun), I just want you to know that my love for you is forever everlasting.”
So there you have it. I have found TRUE love. Love the way it was meant to be, the way it should be – just let it happen naturally. Love is great, love is good, love is ten times better than good food. And some of you punks my poke fun of me for being a cheezeball, but I can picture you when YOU find the right one. You too will become a romantic cheezeball… Mark my words…
