I woke up this morning and went about my normal routine for this time of year: brushed my teeth, got a cup of coffee, woke the kids, cleaned up a dead mouse. I turned on the news to get the weather and they were running footage from six years ago. It was so sad all over again. I watched for a minute and had to turn it off. The weather channel was showing today's weather so I tuned into that.

After I put Pook on the school bus I drove Em and Abby to the orthodontist. It's a dreary day here in New York. It's been raining non-stop since Pook got on that bus this morning and it doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon. I drove for an hour in that rain down to Rockland county where their orthodontist has an office and thought about the last time September 11th fell on a Tuesday. We were going to go to Harriman State Park and spend the day walking trails and fishing. Instead Dennis' unit got activated and he was sent to guard the streets of Manhattan. I can't believe it's been six years already and it is still so sad. I've seen video of those towers fall over and over and it still stuns me. I don't understand a mind that can rejoice at that sight. I remember standing there watching the original scene and knowing I was watching thousands of people die. Among them were friends, neighbors and co-workers of mine and Dennis'. The total loss of life was so much lower than it could have been; than I thought it would be. It is something to be grateful for: they timed their attack to happen at the least crowded time of day. My thoughts moved in turn to all the things that have happened since as a result of that attack. Then I thought of Dennis' best friend: he was killed in Iraq last summer. Dennis is going to Afghanistan after Christmas. By the time I got to the orthodontist I was kind of somber.

He had the radio going in the back of his office and as I sat in the waiting room I could only catch a phrase here and there from it. It was just as well. I really don't want to relive that day every year. Em had a long appointment so I sat in the waiting room for nearly an hour reading my book. People came and went and I started to notice something. They were all very different. One woman was rifling through her purse to get her checkbook to pay the doctor and in doing so took out a change purse, keys and a beautiful set of rosary beads. Across from her sat a big man in workpants who spoke no English. I don't know what language it was for certain but it sounded Russian; his son translated for him. The patient who was being treated when we arrived, came out of the back room with her mom. She had an accent that suggested her native tongue was Spanish. She could have been Puerto Rican or Mexican. They left and a Hasidic man and his son came in and had a seat. It was wild and at the same time it was ordinary. This is how it always is in this doctor's office. As a matter of fact this is how it is at the supermarket or the mall. This is how it is to live in New York.

As I drove home I had to stop at a crosswalk to let the pedestrians go and among them were a Muslim man in traditional dress and goth girl covered in tattoos. Everyone was minding their own business, living and letting live. I thought about that too. No one was worried that a car bomb was going to go off by the dentist office because he's Jewish. No one gave anyone else a hard time about their religion or their nationality. The men didn't treat the women like animals and beat them because of their clothes. It seems to me that most people just want to live their lives and go home to their families. They want warm, safe places to live and enough food to eat. They want to raise their children their own way and make them get braces. Most people are decent enough. It's just a very small few that cause all the trouble.

Nearly three thousand people died on this day, six years ago. Nineteen of them were responsible for all that destruction. Thousands turn out within hours to help clean up the mess and rescue whomever they could find. Decent people came from everywhere to do whatever they could to help other people. Thousands worked on rebuilding and restoring what was destroyed that day. I think it's important to remember what happened and the thousands who were killed that day but I think it's just as important, maybe more important, to remember all the thousands and millions of decent people who go about their lives and live and let live in countries that don't impinge their freedom to do just that.