On Friday Brynn came home from school and announced that they had read a book about 9/11. She said that she had learned that some bad men flew airplanes into big buildings and that a lot of fireman had died.
I have to admit that I was not exactly pleased with Brynn's announcement. It's not that I don't want her to know about 9/11 but I do think that 4 is pretty young to be able to digest the information. Brynn is particularly sensitive when it comes to learning about the suffering of others. We had to turn off the tv during all of the Hurricane stuff because we noticed that Brynn was engrossed in it. At one point, she looked at me with big tears in her eyes and said "Mama, that lady said that people died. Why did they die? Is that going to happen here?"
So, when Brynn announced that she had learned about 9/11 I could easily anticipate the questions that were on the way and how does one explain it to a four-year-old child when we adults don't really understand it? Dan and I do our best to be open and honest with Brynn but we also try to tell her things in a way that won't frighten her. Her biggest question was that she wanted to know why the bad men did that. Sigh. The best answer that I could come up with was "No one really knows why Brynn."
Her other questions were a little easier. She wanted to know where Mommy and Daddy were and I was able to easily answer that. I don't think there is a single person who can not tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing at the time of the attacks. I was in my first couple of weeks in law school in Baltimore and getting ready to attend class when I turned on the news. I was actually watching the news when the second tower was hit and was sitting in the law school lobby where everyone was surrounding a tv by the time the towers collapsed. I can easily remember the bewilderment and fear that my friends and I all felt. We were of a generation that believed the good old USA was invincible. It was inconceivable to us that this act was happening on our soil. I think we all suddenly felt how vulnerable we really were. It was just moments after that that our dean came to the lobby and asked us all to evacuate the city.
I can remember spending the next few days just sitting around the tv every chance we had...looking at the images and trying to make sense of them. Last night, Danny and I watched one of the 9/11 documentaries which was showing some of those same images and we are still trying to make sense of them.
So in the end, I'm glad Brynn knows the basics of 9/11. I know that I will never forget what happened that day and Dan and I will just do our best to make sense of what happened right along with out kids.
PS. Brynn did have a nightmare about an airplane running into our house but seems to be digesting it pretty well. I swear sometimes she is too smart for her own good!
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| We will not forget... |
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