A long form post. This has been bubbling on the back burner for a while. Events in Belgium have brought it to the fore. It was Tuesday morning September 11 2001 and I was just up and getting ready for work when the phone rang. A co-worker asked me if they could use the TV in my office; they’d heard that something terrible was going down in NYC. I turned on my home TV in time to see the second plane strike. NM hadn’t considered any office closures so off to work I went. For some time I was depressed and anxious as so many people were. I considered how I was to deal with this. I resolved to fly to Chicago and get up in a tall building. A magazine article noted that the Signature Room in the Hancock Center was then the highest restaurant in the world after the fall of Windows on the World. Tourism and travel took a hard hit so it was pretty easy to get a dinner reservation there on 10/26 at 6 for my 49th birthday. I was fortunate that, on hearing my plan, my sister decided to fly from VA to CHI to join me. We toddled about the city of broad shoulders, saw art and sights, went to Trader Vic’s on The Loop for a tropical cocktail, and then arrived for dinner timely. The restaurant is on the 95th floor and is surrounded with large plate glass windows that overlook Navy Pier and its brightly lit attractions and giant Ferris wheel. I had a huge delicious rib eye steak and they brought my complimentary dessert on a plate with my name in strawberry syrup. I figured, I can do this. The French suffered horribly and yet soon after they were again on the streets, in sidewalk cafes drinking coffee and wine and eating stinky cheese with croissants. The Belgians will do the same in their own time. Now in Middle Eastern countries ravaged by war they still gather for coffee and perhaps a hookah to confirm their bonds with each other. Israelis still dance the hora at weddings. This is about terrorism. I do not believe that evil is any kind of active force in the world. There are misguided ignorant people, some of whom have bad wiring in their brains. I’m not gilding the lily here. Shit happens. Stuff blows up. People die. This will continue. FDR said, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Edward R Murrow said, we will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason. Mark Twain said, courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. Don’t settle for being fearful. Talk it out by yourself and with a friend. Then adjust your accoutrement and get back on the field.

The Quark family lives near the Leptons. The Leptons have been invited to the Quark’s home for game night. The Quarks are the kids Eenie Meenie Minie Manny and mom Mo and pop Jack. The Leptons are kids Micky the twins Daisy and Donald then Goofy and mom Minnie and dad Jiminy. The Forces live down the street. Their kids are Canola (we think he’s adopted) and Sunflower and their mother is Olive. Everybody calls the old man Motor. We don’t mess with them much. They pretty much run everything in the neighborhood. After Jack and Jiminy coax the gals and kids into the family room for a spirited round of Twister they sneak into the kitchen for a quick snort of the whisky hidden behind the sink.