is this weird?

[corellianrogue]

okay, this may sound weird, but, as I'm doing my research like a good little honors nerd, I came across some still pictures of the collapse of Tower 1. That sentence is a gramatical nightmare, but I'll worry about that when I'm more coherent. Anyway, it reminded me of 9-11-2001. I walked into my first period class and the teacher had the TV on. This wasn't really unusual, Mr. Bernadt loved to watch the news before his first class, since he was usually at school before the morning news came on. So I asked him if anything interesting was on and he said a plane had hit the WTC, but that they were saying it was only a small private plane or something, an accident. I thought the pilot was stupid, but accidents happen, even when they take lives, sad but it does happen. Come to think of it, I don't even remember why I was in class that early. It would have to have been before 8:00, because time diff and all that and the second plane hit tower 2 at 9:03 EST, so it had to have been before 8, but class didn't start till 8:15...hm, I wonder why I was there that early, not to mention in the classroom. But I started watching, and the angle they were showing it didn't look so bad. Another kid showed up and we started talking about it. Then I thought they had just showed a replay of the first plane crash, but I realized that now both towers were smoking. I'd just seen the second plane hit tower two. I was in complete shock. It was obviously not an accident anymore. We all sat there in shock as more and more kids came into the classroom. We didn't really have class that day, just sat and watched the TV. Then, tower 2 collapsed, and nobody could believe it. I mean, we were all born in 84-85, so we'd never known what the NYC skyline had looked like without the twin towers. It just hadn't happened. We all sat stunned as we watched the debris clear. And then tower 1 went. I remember thinking that the cameraman, the one who got the shot that's been replayed about a million times on every channel, where you can just see this cloud of dust and who knows what billowing and coming down the street, and people are running full tilt as fast and as far away from that tower as they can get, and I just kept thinking, man, that camera guy's one brave sucker. Think about it, he had to have been walking backwards (you can tell he probably isn't running because the camera is so steady) watching something that could very well be his death come closer and closer as others run by him, but he stays and gets the shot. It's not till the cloud is almost on him that he finally drops the camera off his shoulder and we get a good look at the street as he hightails it outta there. Wow. But, yeah, I just remember being stunned and shocked and that the overwhelming majority in our class was in favor of nuking the snot out of the sob's who'd dare do something like this to us, the USofA. but now, I'm thinking of it in my semi-drugged, insomniac state, and I'm looking at these still photos, and I can't help but notice the beauty of it all. Not the attacks or the people dying or anything, don't get me wrong, but it's kinda like when a volcano erupts or a glacier breaks apart. You know it's gonna cause problems somewhere down the line, but you just can't take your eyes off it, it's too primal and just deadly beautiful. The towers collapsing were really like that. I think we need to remember that, that in nature nothing stands forever, but there is always something to be gained, some beauty to be seen in even the most destructive act. Nothing is more savage than a predator on the hunt, but who can argue that there is no value there. So maybe that seems weird and is just a product of my sleep-deprived mind, but how else could that have so captivated us if not for the savage beauty of it all. The clouds rising into a perfect, blue, cloudless sky? The sheer courage of those who went there, gave their lives, their hope, their dreams to keep others alive, or to return them to their families when that failed. wow, deep. ... I need sleep.