Ten years on

I almost want to avoid news coverage of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. But I took all that shit so seriously when it happened that it seems like reflection is due.

First off, it is good that there have been no major terror attacks on the US in ten years. Richard Clarke speculated that the decade would be a tough one, with multiple waves of terrorism and a national response that includes war abroad and further limits to freedoms at home. Blessedly, those further attacks never came. Of course that didn't stop a rush to war limits to civil liberties that no one is comfortable. But it could have been much, much worse.

But the decade sucked for other reasons. Our economy is stagnating and we are on the way to losing our economic dominance to a police state. We arguably lost the space race to the Soviet Union in 2011. We are still tied up to some degree in long-lasting overseas conflicts that have shown us the limits of our military power.

I think I fared better than the nation did over the past decade. There have been some losses. Some slow, lazy losses. And there have been triumphs. Slow, persistent victories. Some good, incremental, natural growth, too, I suppose.

If we must get older, there have to be some benefits to it. For example, as time passes we can learn where in the world we feel rooted. We might learn to appreciate an irreplicable connection to a family member we had been accustomed to shrugging off as a nuisance. We can be thankful for the bonds among us that strengthen with time, and the people we come to understand bring out the best in us, and compassionately nudge us away from our worst.