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18 years ago at this moment, I was in a meeting at George Washington University, 4 blocks from the White House. Remarkably, nobody came in to interrupt us and tell us what was happening. /1
When we finished, around 1130, we stepped out to find the entire area around the WH in lockdown and gridlock. I stopped a student passing by on his bike to ask what had happened? He looked at me like I was insane or from another planet (which I guess I was, metaphorically) /2
And shouted "they bombed the Twin Towers and the Pentagon" as he sped off. It too me quite a while to piece together what had happened that day as I walked 3 miles home across the city, avoiding exclusion zones around the Federal buildings. /3
I managed to withdraw some cash and buy some milk and bread (why is that the instinct) as I walked home. My wife was in Brazil at the time and because the phone lines were clogged, I did not reach her until 4 or 5 PM that day. I had been scheduled to leave to join her /4
on the 13th and it is a mark of how little I understood that the world had changed that I confidently told her "don't worry, I'll be down to join you as planned." Boy was I wrong. She didn't get home herself until Sunday on one of the first planes to fly back to the US. /5
I lost 3 friends that day. One was on the phone with a mutual acquaintance when the phone cut off -- he was never heard from again. Another friend, was late to a meeting at the WTC and missed death by mere happenstance. /6
The events of 9/11 changed my world personally and, in the end, professionally. And when it happened, I really had no idea that it had ... /fin
