Paris and Beyond

Being a child of the new millenium, my daughter has never known a world before 9/11. The date in modern history that divides two eras: the one of trust and respect and the relative lack of fear, and the one we now live in - an era of hate and fear and distrust.

She's never known a time before schools had to practice lock-down steps in case of an intruder. Or being able to wait at the gates of airports for loved ones to arrive by plane. Of kids walking home alone from school or playing outside all day without worry. Where parents didn't have to put their child's fingerprints in a database in case of abduction. A world where sex trafficking was a story in a movie, not another threat to which you must warn your child.

No Internet predators, no kids bullying each other to the point of suicide, no school policies that disallow even shaping your fingers into pretend guns. She's never played cowboys and Indians, Red Rover, or fallen off of monkey bars.

The world has changed so much. When her dad and I were kids, we got dirty, we got scraped and cut, and fell off of swings going too high. We ate watermelon outside without washing out hands. Hand sanitizer? Pfft. Sure, our parents worried about things like polio, the U.S.S.R., and the Cuban Missile Crisis. But kids were kids. We were free and wild.

And then the world changed forever. In a matter of hours, all of that disappeared, along with the steel and mortar and people inside those buildings and airplanes. Trust disappeared, along with compassion, love, and respect for our fellow man. Childhood disappeared, only to be replaced with having to raise little adults, if simply for their own safety.

With yesterday's terrorists attacks in Paris, we are reminded once again of this. While parents watch the news wide-eyed in horror, children go about their day. After all, this is "normal" in their lives now. They've grown up knowing terrorists attacks. It's just another day in their eyes.

I miss the days before 9/11. I miss open doors and free travel and trusting your neighbor no matter of race or religion. I miss families watching ONE television together at night, and reading ourselves to sleep instead of playing on electronic devices. I miss children being children. I miss love.

Things will change yet again after yesterday. There will be even more restrictions and more safety measures and more fear. And we'll all go along with it because we have no other choice. But at night, when I'm trying to sleep with all the images and thoughts of the last 14 years running through my head, I'm going to try instead to remember running wild and free. I will treasure those innocent times.

I love you all.