Imagine a rope in a tug-of-war contest, the team on one end wearing HAPPY shirts and on the other end the shirts say SAD. With few exceptions your mood state at any given moment is Neutral or one end of the described rope or the other. I’ve been thinking about one major exception this week.

September 11-12, 2001 was an exception. When planes crashed into the Twin Towers and Pentagon and PA field (flight 93), I was oblivious. Using dial-up to download work email in Utah I was 1,300 miles from home. Via hearsay I learned what had happened back east.

I was able to secure a Greyhound Bus ticket home. 30 or so hours later I got home. Both ends of the rope came into focus. I wore both team shirts (HAPPY, SAD). With my wife and 2 children, #3 at college, u was so happy. Yet I wore that SAD shirt for the victims, our country, and the world. It’s emotionally draining to live at both ends of the rope for an extended period.

Nobody will or should feel empathy for me in this 20 year anniversary. I had a HAPPY shirt to wear. Thousands had only a SAD shirt that day, week, months and years. This is my 9/11 story and I thank this blog for allowing me to share it.