Exactly ten years ago, my hubby and I just got married.
One night, when he watched a news TV program, lying on a Futon to be ready to sleep, he muttered.
"...What's the hell this is? What is happening!?"
We watched the scene that two airplanes were crashing the World Trade Center in NY.
It was like a Hollywood movie's scene, but we knew it was not. It was real.
We spontaneously cuddle each other without saying a word. We had never experienced the fear. The fear was the apprehension that something worst would happen worldwide, it might affect our lives in Japan, too.
...It has been 10 years since then.
During the decade, we lived in America that seemed a different world to us.
Although we lived a small city in Indiana, a still "different world" from NY, we gradually figured out how this crucial terrorism attack had affected Americans.
Then, two days ago, I read two news articles.
One is; the interview of the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm, Howard Lutnick.
His company's office was located on 101th-105th floors of the North World Trade Center.
He lost all of his fellows who were working at the office then. The casualties were 658, out of the whole 960 employees. His brother was one of them.
On that day, Howard was delayed getting to the office because he had taken his son to his first day of kindergarten. The delay saved him.
However, the surviving boss had to live another crucial life.
Since the day, he had attended 30 funerals PER DAY for 25 days in a row.
He suffered from insomnia. On sleepless nights, he wrote 1,700 letters to his fellow victim's families.
If I were him, I would go crazy.
However, he was a very determined leader.
He had hired about 35 new employees every week to revive his company. Some of them were children of his fellow victims.
Just after 9/11, he announced he would dedicate 25% (eventually, 1.8 million dollars) of the company's profit to the victim families for 5 years and their medical insurance for 10 years.
Then, he made those promises come true as he said!
His story tells us how people could be strong even in such a catastrophic situation.
However, the other article about 9/11 showed us how vulnerable we could become, as well.
It is said that the number of people who had PTSD (Post Traumatic System Disorder) has increased a lot AFTER 5 years of 9/11. It means if we work too hard after a disaster, we might collapse even time has passed.
The two side stories made me think a lot.
If I happen to experience such a calamity unfortunately, should I believe in my strong side or should I care for my vulnerable side?
To protect my family, which side should I focus on?
Probably, I need to know about myself. I should watch & care for my family day by day, then I could give the best advice to them, maybe.
The most important thing is; if we survive from a disaster, we should keep living.
The pace depends on the person, but we shouldn't stop ourselves try to move on.
To every victim on 9/11, all of my condolences to you.
To every survivor of that, all of my best wishes to you.
