Jefke.com

so i guess it was in 2002 or maybe 2003 that i decided to treat anniversary’s of 9/11 as an opportunity to give thanks rather than think about it all to much and depress/freak myself out. it’s been 4 years now, and i think mainstreet usa had healed a lot and sorta moved on. they didn’t even broadcast the moment of silence or the reading of the names on npr this year. i guess it’s good and bad, i mean you can’t keep opening the wounds, and with katrina and all, well–people are focused on the present.  but anyway.

so while it may be passe to take a moment and reflect, i’m gonna do it anyway-err, a day late. though i was thinking about it a lot yesterday. i think this country or culture or whatever needs a somber thanksgiving–without carbs, booze, football, traffic jams, family squabbles and tons of pictures of people wearing shoes with weird buckles on them. 

for our newer reader (readers?), natty and i lived in nyc in 2001 when 9/11 happened. she watched the towers go down from her office building on the way way west side. I didn’t actually see them go down, b/c i was running up and down the stairs to the roof of my office building (that sounds weird–the building where i worked?) as horrifying as it was for her to see them fall, it was pretty damn strange to come back up top and see only one tower and a big cloud of smoke. my building was/is on astor place further down, but not downtown. from natty’s perspective, the cloud envelop what looked like all of lower manhattan. so she was a bit freaked out. after things calmed down a bit, a couple of us walked over to her building and then downtown, over the bklyn bridge back to bklyn.

what’s amazing is that we didn’t loose anyone we knew, we knew a lot of people that lost people, and many more people that knew people that had lost people…etc. what freaked me out, then-and probably even more now, is how fucking quickly a beautiful day can change in to a day of horror and loss.

err, this is getting depressing…quick right turn!

so anyway. seems appropriate to honor those that were lost and those who lost someone by taking a moment to appreciate what I (we) have. 

naturally it’s been a big big year, both in terms of joy and reasons for my over active mind to worry about stuff. first to mind is natty’s healthy and successful pregnancy, and the healthy and happy arrival of nathan (the captain), it was another health, rat killing filled year for henry, and inspite of a diagnosis of diabetes for one of the cats, they seem to keep on keepin’ on. We had a scare with my father’s health a few months back, and thankfully it was only a touch of pneumonia rather than an end to remission. my sisters and their families are all healthy and natasha’s family is healthy as well. 

while health is most important, lets be realistic here and give a nod to some more mundane matters: i am thankful that i remain employed-oh you scoff as you read it, but shit, i’ve been laid off, and it’s not fucking fun. natty is still in active pursuit of her goal to become a nurse and further a midwife. our 14 ft wide micro house continues to stand and shield us from the elements and such. of course there is the subie, and other object which have come in to my greedy little hands, but that’s getting a bit too shallow even for me. 

so anyway, sorry for the downer, but seriously, take a minute, reflect on what you have, maybe say a word or two to someone you care about (not that i did or anything–err well i am now). life is a precious thing, and i know i forget that all too often.

i have a crap load of work to do but if i’m a good little boy maybe at lunch time i’ll post up on the captain’s first trip north of the mason dixon and henry’s sanguinary activities.