September 11

A year ago today, I was riding my bike and was broadsided by an SUV. I had a stop sign, the SUV had a stop sign. I slowed to clear the intersection and never saw the SUV behind a large bush. The SUV never slowed for the stop sign. It was a month after my Dad had passed and I remember thinking in that split second when I knew I was going to be hit that I was going to see him sooner then I had planned but as the front grill and bumper made contact I remember him saying to me, "not today".

My bike went flying as I went up on to the hood, into the windshield and then out on to the street. I tried to relax and just let the momentum take me where it would but when I hit the ground I immediately jumped up for fear of getting run over. I'm certain that my fitness and my helmet saved me from major injury that day. I had severe bruising on both my legs, and my left hand which was pinched between my grip on the handlebars and the car hurt immensely. The swelling was dramatic and instantaneous. Despite early predictions by the responding medics that I had broken my leg and hand, the end result was all soft tissue injury.

This was a traumatic event that I carry with me every time I clip into my pedals. Just thinking of it brings back the physical pain, a phantom that will likely stay with me for sometime. The positive result is that it changed the way I ride and the way I think about life. That this happened on September 11, 2005 is perhaps no strange coincidence.

On September 11, 2001, JB and I had just returned from a week on Cape Cod. The day before as we were driving through NYC on our way home I yelled at her for driving and staring at the WTC towers. The next morning, on what I remember noting as a beautiful fall day--crisp, comfortable air, not a cloud in the sky--all would contradict that peacefulness I sensed as I walked into my office building in Washington, DC.

Today, I remember the 2,973 people who died in the tragic events that unfolded in NYC, Shanksville, PA, and here at the Pentagon where I ride by on my bike several times a week. I can't stop there. To remember these victims we must also remember the 2,669 U.S. Servicemembers killed in Iraq (plus 233 coalition members), and the 302 U.S. Servicemembers killed in Afghanistan (plus 141 coalition members). I remember them all today.

I am thinking of the family members of those lost, and our Servicemembers on active duty in Iraq (approximately 138,000) and Afghanistan (approximately 18,000) and their families, and especially about my nephew Adam who is serving his second tour. Everyone carries these events and resulting experiences with them, the challenge is to find a way to channel them into something positive.

A shout out to the 4ID.