It’s called empathy…
we are all born with the innate ability to identify with and feel other’s feelings.
Society drills into us that it isn’t ok to cry, we shouldn’t cry because someone else always has it worse…
Dear god! it’s the thing that makes us most human…it’s the thing that bonds us all together.
Feel every feeling you have and cry as much as you need to.
I know I am…
It’s okay for you to cry, TP. I haven’t been able to do so yet. I just vacillate between being shocked, scared, and sickened. I teared up when I first saw the footage, but I couldn’t cry. All I could do was watch in horror and feel sick at the thought that people were dying before my eyes, and there was not a damn thing I could do about it. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that there are people out there who think nothing of taking another life. Those people who hijacked those planes and crashed them into the WTC and the Pentagon, how could they harden their hearts enough to plan that level of destruction to human beings? Life is so precious. How could they plot for the many months, perhaps years it took to coordinate this, to take away so many lives?
Yesterday and today I walked around in a daze. I was in a daze at work. I couldn’t concentrate on anything, even though my brain keeps pushing me to do something constructive with it. I can’t even work myself up to being angry because I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that yesterday thousands of people went to work and a few hundred got on planes, and they will never go home again, and my heart just hurts for them and for their families and friends.
I think in some ways I feel guilty because I’m alive and the sun was shining today, and it just seemed like it was a normal day, but it really wasn’t normal. I’m sick of the news coverage and the stupid, stupid questions the reporters have been asking folks. If you just came out of the Pentagon after it was bombed, would you really want to talk to the press?! It’s actually the news coverage that’s sought to sensationalize this tragedy–I don’t think that I need to see the planes hit those buildings from every conceivable angle. Once is one time too many–that has made me angry at times. What must it be like for the families and friends of those who died to see shot after shot of those planes hitting their targets? How could the media be so insensitive to them? But I still can’t cry.
I think that when I get past being shocked, I will feel pity rather than anger for those misguided hijackers and whatever cause they thought they were dying for. I pity anyone who finds glory or thrills or whatever-the-hell it is they do find in killing innocent people. And maybe someday I can get past all of this, have a good cry, and heal.
Sorry if I’m rambling or sound a little crazy. I really haven’t been thinking straight these past two days. But I’m glad, TP and others who’ve posted to this thread, that you are able to cry. It’s just a step in the healing process.
TruePisces, I’ve been crying a lot too. I thought I had it under control today until I saw the running list of victims…None of whom I know personally, but all those people lost, for what?
Everytime I think of the people on the planes, having to live the last moments of their life in that terror, then dying in such a horrible crash, I fall to pieces. I cried with the nurses at the Red Cross today, watching the second plane hit for the three-hundreth time.
And then those people who jumped. Having to choose between burning to death or falling. What a choice to make.
Many, many wonderful, kind, loving people died yesterday, a lot of whom had families that loved them very much. Although I don’t know any of them, I’m grieving with them.
I’ve been crying on and off, too. Yesterday my husband happened to be home, and he came and got me to tell me “The WTC’s been bombed, it’s all over the tv!”
We watched the towers fall, and the clouds of dust and debris, but then when I saw the one shot of the plane going into the side of the first tower, I started crying. I don’t know anyone who was killed or injured, but imagining what it must have been like on those planes in the last minutes, or what it must have been like in the towers as they were collapsing…I cried, and then when my husband left to go to work on night shift, I really let loose and wailed. Today I feel numb, and scared, like a little child. I’m scared of going to war, I’m scared of more terrorist attacks, I’m scared they’re going to just start bombing us everywhere. My husband tried to reassure me and tell me that they wouldn’t be able to do that now, because of the heightened security. But I heard what sounded like a plane engine outside earlier today, and I tensed up (it was probably a car or truck). I’m scared that somethings going to happen while he and I are apart, or that he and I get separated somehow
great I’m crying now but I have to get this fear out of my system. I’m sorry if it brings anyone else down.
going to go call my husband
I didn’t really cry much. I’m only 17, and I think this destruction is hard for me to fathom. I find that people with children, for example, cannot possibly fight back the tears.
I did cry 10 minutes ago, though. I was looking through some of the pictures of the event. If I had really wanted to hold back tears, I could have, but I wanted to cry. I think I needed to cry. This picture is the one that got to me most:
http://www.flavacountry.com/america.jpg
I don’t care that it’s altered to highlight the flag. It’s just doing visually what we all would have done mentally. Couple that patriotic, inspiring picture with a something emotional song playing in the background, and you’ve got yourself a crying teenage boy. And no, I’m not ashamed of it…and no one else should be either.
Far and away, the most terrifying thoughts are 1) The fact that some people jumped out of those buildings (I cannot even fathom the terror), and 2) The possibility that this may happen again if we don’t do something.
May God Bless America. May He remind us always as to how united we can be if we choose to, even if we do not have such a tragedy to remind us of how to be kind to each other. I think that, if everyone can make a point to remember this day, and how people have come together because of the nearly universal bond of compassion, sorrow, and patriotism, that we can come out of this stronger and kinder than ever.
I feel like I want to cry again…but I’m happier now. I’m so happy that I’ve been fortunate enough to see the aftermath of this, because it is as beautiful as it is horrible. I have never in my life seen this country come together this way. Ever! I’m now seeing somewhat spontaneous church ceremonies…we’ve got people volunteering for the army to fight this evil, people giving blood. I know someone who was turned away from giving blood because he was too young, so he sat down and created some graphics and files that people can use on their sites to honor this day.
We have prayer groups gathering, and we have thousands of websites putting up notices and condolences, and soliciting donations from people. Amazon.com has raised over $1.5 million since the tragedy, all online. They’ve put their business aside for this, as have many others.
This is beautiful. This is a learning experience…we are learning that you truly CAN find good in virtually everything. It always sounded a little like a catchphrase, even if I did believe it. Always sounded like a naive, optimistic saying…but now I know it’s true. It really is.
I hope I can remember the unity I’m seeing now. I want to remember it for the rest of my life. If we can all do that, this country will become more amazing than ever.