TThis is the story of my grandson Noah on the days following the human bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
It will show how a child takes what he/she sees and how children process the events in their innocent minds.
Tuesday September 11, 2001 was to be the first day of preschool for my two grandsons. That morning as it turned out was to be come infamous for the United states of America, as well as to all the God loving and Peace searching people of the world.
I had called my daughter that morning knowing that in a household of two small children she would be watching cartoons and not a news program. I was right she had no idea of the events that were unfolding. Try as she may it was hard to protect her children’s innocent eyes and ears from the tragedy that had befallen the New York people. That day she was compelled to watch television, just as the rest of the nation was compelled to watch the horrific scenes that were being broadcast.
As a family we had decided that the boys would not be sent to school that day for it was to unstable a situation to risk them being away from home. It so happens that they look forward to school and were very disappointed to not start that day. She (my daughter) and her husband undertook the issue of helping the children to try to understand the situation that they as parents were suddenly faced with.
My daughter and her husband , thought she had been successful in helping them understand that it was not a good idea to go to school that day and and that they would start soon, not to worry that all would be fine within a couple of days and back to normal. That all was well in the world and especially in their world.
Obviously nothing is back to normal, and may never be normal again. Thursday came around and the boys were in the car on their way with their mother to what became their first day of preschool. Noah the youngest of my grandsons, all of age three, looked into his mothers face and asked,” Mommy is my school not broken anymore?” She was confused and asked what he meant by that, when he responded her heart broke at what she heard. “You know, we did not go to school the other day because the school got broken and now it is ok, did they fix the school ?”
Stunned by what she was hearing, my daughter comforted her son and assured him that it was not his school that had been broken and that was not why he stayed home that day. That they had just wanted to be together as a family
A moment of lost innocence. Here we adults see into the mind of a child. Just how the mind of a child processes the events of terror that exist in this world. He took it to the only level of understanding that he could take it to. Noah watched as he witnessed the events on television and in his small mind, equated the destruction to his world. He could not go to school due to this building that had fallen and become broken. Therefore it must have been his school that broke. what other excuse could keep him from going to school that day ?
For two days this small angel thought that the world that had collapsed was his world for that is how children see things. Their worlds are as small as they are. If it affects them it must have something to do with their worlds and therefore, saw that it was his school that was destroyed. I wonder how this event will affect this sweet angelic baby? Can some please answer that question for me please?
Another moment of lost innocence, fear and terror.
I was talking on the net in a news chat room when a young woman started to yell and say that all Arabs should pay for this and that America should kill all those involved. After a few minutes of rhetoric and back and forth bantering, she was able to see that Not all Arabs are evil and the reasons that many Arabs in other lands distrust Americans. On and on the conversations went, to the point of tears for many involved in the conversation, including myself.
One tear led to another and then suddenly this young child said in a terrified voice, ” I am only 15, and I don’t want to die, here they are talking about world War 3 and all, and I just want to grow up! I want to have babies and get married and all the other stuff that comes with it! I don’t want to die!”
My heart broke for her as it does for all the children of the world forced to fear for their lives. Forced to lash out in terror at anything that comes their way because of the insanity of a world that cares for flags more than people. A world where Government and land mean more than people. We kill in the name of God and somehow I don’t see God appreciating that. God help us all.
