2003-09-11 - 9:40 p.m.
i talked to my kids about september 11. our principal came over the announcements telling us to talk to our kids "in out own way." i turned on the news to watch the ceromony at ground zero for about 5 minutes; we heard some poems, saw the moment of silence. it was so sad. a few of my kids were crying or getting teary-eyed. even my little tough-guy, "fine, go CALL my mom...whatever" kid. it's difficult to know exactly how to approach these things. they really want to know what's going on, but i don't want to freak them out. i hope i didn't give them any bad dreams or anything. it's really hard to look at a roomful of fourth graders right in thier curious eyes and explain how in the world all those people never came home. we talked about "perserverence." that was part of the announcement; we were all supposed to discuss what that was today. my kids surprise me all the time. they can fall down and cry like toddlers and they can grasp these fundamental questions of life. why do horrible things happen? how can we live our lives knowing that at any moment it could be destroyed? how do we keep going after the destruction? it basically comes down to this: bad things happen. they just do. you keep on going because that's what you do. it's all you can do.
