There are going to be lots of memories and remembrances today about 9/11/01. These will be eloquent and poignant and touching. Any attempt I make would serve to clutter those remembrances.

I was at my very first home inspection today five years ago, with my very first clients. We grabbed a TV from the Seller’s bedroom and watched in silence? Horror? Disbelief? Confusion?

Today, I am planning* to fly to Chicago through LaGuardia. Because I have to be in Chicago tonight and tomorrow. For most of us, life goes on. For that I am grateful. Never forget.

*”planning to” because I am scheduled to fly out of the Charlottesville airport, an airport with which I am currently batting a .500 success rate with regards to actual departures and landings.

Update: I read this on the way from Charlottesville to NYC. (from the WSJ- free link here)

One must have a blunt answer to the banal chat-show and op-ed question: What have we learned? (The answer ought not to be that we have learned how to bully and harass citizens who try to take shampoo on flights on which they have lawfully booked passage. Yet incompetent collective punishment of the innocent, and absurd color-coding of the “threat level,” is the way in which most Americans actually experience the “war on terror.”) Anyone who lost their “innocence” on September 11 was too naïve by far, or too stupid to begin with. On that day, we learned what we ought to have known already, which is that clerical fanaticism means to fight a war which can only have one victor.

And to my family, I say thank you for your support and love and understanding. I know you’re a bit scared, but today is as safe and/or as unsafe as any other day. I’ll be back tomorrow night.

* You cannot comprehend just how stupid the policy of not allowing coffee or water through security is until you experience it.