My personal experiences with terrorism are tangential.
My husband was en route to Logan Airport in Boston with one of our sons on 9/11/01. They were halfway across New York State, planning to spend the night with my sister-in-law in Providence, when I began calling them frantically that morning to tell them not to drive through the city. My son and the 60 other students in the group en route to France for a year returned home, but 10 days later they were on a flight to Paris out of JFK. It was terrifying for all of us parents, I'm sure, to put our children on that plane, but we could not let their enthusiasm and eagerness to experience life in a new culture, their outrageous willingness to learn and to share, be destroyed by terrorism.
This summer my other son is in Barcelona. He's had the flu for three days and been sleeping it off in his dorm room, but the night before he got sick I called him and found him out to dinner with four Italian guys and two Turkish girls. He sounded on top of the world. This morning every motherly instinct I have tells me to get him on a return flight and tell him to forget about trying to see the world, but I'm resisting with all my might.
I don't even know what to say. There are young people all over the world, of whom my sons are only two, excited about stepping into the light and participating in the international future that is already upon us. And there are others who spend their time in darkness, planning and executing mass murder.
10 comments:
Although this is anything but an act of God, we cannot hide our children away and keep them safe. They must fly. We cannot live in fear.
so sad to hear this this morning. judi
especially scary, for parents to have kids abroad!
{{{ Hugs }}}
V
You sound like a great Mom. It's sad that the world has gone crazy. Try not to worry. ~ Lori
Very scary. Such a hard thing to do, let our children "fly", when the world is in the state it is in.
That's got to be a tough position to be in. Your motherly instincts tell you that your children are safest when they are close to you. This is where my math/statistics background come in handy....in order to remind myself that the chances of this sort of thing hurting one of my loved ones is so miniscule as to be almost negligible. They are much more likely to be hurt in a car accident on any given day than a terrorist attack. I know, I know, small "comfort".
Yes, I can relate to what you are sayng. Having Rebekah in China is bittersweet. You know someone commented that we feel our children are safest when they are near us. That made me realize why this has been so hard for me to have my daughter so far away. Even though Rebekah is in China and the bombings were in London, I instantly grew alarmed for her safety. I'm glad to know that they are all safe. Anyway, I will pray for your son's safety. :) ~Pamela
So sad and scarey indeed! Those terrorists must've known they would get attention cuz of the G8 meeting. Sadly it worked; I have only heard about the bombings in London and nothing of the G8 meeting. TC~Sassy
http://journals.aol.com/sassydee50/SassysEYE
Yes, it is something to think about.... I wish we could all know that our children are safe, but I guess it doesn't matter where they are. We just have to be faithful. Pamela
My sister and niece were airborne, on Alitalia, returning from Italy when the 9/11 news hit. They returned to Italy, where they were more or less abandoned by the airline. They finally got home eight days later.
I recently committed to a trip to London next April. I'll be going, even though at Heathrow they always suspect me of being IRA.
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