Sept 11

I didn't want today to pass without making an acknowledgment about Sept 11th.
I remember being at work that day and a physiotherapist came by and very quietly said that something bad had happened at the World Trade Centre in New York. We always have a few TV's set up for patients who are well enough to watch and that day, I have to admit, we were all glued to CNN.
I remember going on my morning coffee break, and a bunch of us were silently watching the news. We were all there together when the second plane flew into the second tower. I remember we were all looking at each other, shocked, confused, and the newscaster's voice was breaking up in anguish. We cleared out the ICU, and our director contacted NYC letting them know that we had available beds if needed. My 12 hour shift turned into a 14 hour shift, we were on Code Orange Alert, and not permitted to go home. As it turned out, the beds were not needed...there weren't enough survivors who required ICU.
The world has never been the same, and likely never will be as innocent as it once was.
What frightens me the most about these terrorists, is their affiliation to Islam, and how they have declared a Holy War. I have lived in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, the home of Mecca. I don't think that Islam is evil, let's just get that straight. The majority of people I met were extremely kind, respectful, and thankful for the care that their family members were receiving. I loved living there and learning about their culture. Most people there lead their lives in a quiet religious manner, following the tenents of Islam. There were times, admittedly, that I felt suffocated by the lifestyle, and I did my fair share of eyeball rolling. But mostly, my thoughts were: live and let live...I didn't go there to change their way of thinking, I went there to experience it. I am interested in religion, I just personally, don't want much to do with it.
This past week, I read a book by Kathy Reichs called Cross Bones. On the last page of the book, I came across something that expresses exactly how I feel:
"The Torah, the Bible, the Koran. Each offers a recipe for spiritual contentment, for hope, for love, and for controlling basic human passions, and each claims to have gotten the recipe straight from God, but via a different messenger. They're all just trying to provide a formula for orderly, spiritual living, but somehow the message gets twisted, like cells in a body turning cancerous. Self-appointed spokesmen declare the boundaries of correct belief, outsiders are labeled heretics, and the faithful are called upon to attack them. I don't think it was meant to be that way."