Letter to Ethan 9/11

Dear My Sweet Son,

On this day many years before you were born, something terrible happened and many, many people's lives were taken.  It was a tragic day.

Mommy can remember exactly what I was doing when I first found out what was happening in a faraway city on the other side of the world.  I was in my bedroom getting ready to go to bed when I heard your grandmother gasp and make a horrible sound from her bedroom.  I dropped everything I was doing, frightened, and ran into her room.  I saw her sitting on her bed with horror on her face staring at the TV.  I turned and saw it myself as well.  That night, I cried hard and couldn't figure out how this world could be so bad.

I remember going to school the next day.  Our school cancelled classes and held a special assembly in the assembly hall.  I remember all the students being called to arise from our seats when our principle and teachers entered the hall in a line, one after another, all with bowed heads and solemn faces.  I remember seeing our two foreign teachers, one from England and the other from the states (if I remember correctly), coming into the hall huddled together crying and I remember the stinging in my heart.

Little bug, I'm sorry to say that mommy still hasn't figured out why the world is so bad at times.  Sometimes bad things happen to good people and when you see things like that happen, there will be a sad feeling in your heart.  It's okay to feel that way.  Don't try to bury it.  Instead, do something about it.  Mommy believes that in the very middle of us, something is there to tell us what is right and what is wrong.  And when we see wrong in this world, that little something tugs at us, telling us that it should not be that way.  It is what we do about that feeling, what we do to right the wrong, that makes us different.  Mommy hopes that you will grow up to have the courage to follow that feeling right inside of you.  When you see someone sad, have the courage to comfort him and make him feel better.  When you see someone hurt, have the courage to help her.  When you see someone lonely, have the courage to be his friend.  Mommy promises that I will try my very best to do the same.  We are a team.  And the good news, mama believes, is that there are more people on our team than there are on the other.  I have no doubt that right will always win in the end.

Love always,
Mama