Day 234 in the Age of Obama and also September 11!

Today I wanted to pay tribute to all those who died on September 11, 2001, and their families and friends who mourn them .

I am aware that nothing I can say will ever ease the pain of their losses, but let me assure them that in our own way, we all shared their pain on that dreadful day, as did the rest of the world.

I humbly bow my head today and pray that nothing so shocking will ever happen again, but that said, I'm not as naive to really believe that, so let me just add "at least not in my life time."

Since then a lot of water has flown under the bridge, and the date of this infamous day bounced around like a political football, almost as if by design--how ever that is another story and not to be told today.

Thanks to our new president, I can now sleep better at night and am still taking a break from politics, so my comments today are all told in the context of the US Open Tennis championships, that had just finished the day before the horror of 9/11 began eight years ago today.

Before the days of Roger Federer, I was a huge Pete Sampras fan--and he had just been beaten--again, and it seemed that his career was finally over, so I was pretty upset at the end of September 9.

The only thing that took the edge of my disappointment was that the winner was a fellow Aussie--Leyton Hewitt, and also that my teenage son insisted on taking me to see a new movie after the match.

So we saw a movie--but I can't remember which one, but no matter; whatever it was- it wasn't as good as 'Nurse Betty'-which had served the same purpose the year before, when Pete lost to Marat Safin.

The following Monday was about a normal a day as one could imagine for me. My kid was at school,I had housework to do, and then some work and the only thing niggling away at my peace of mind was the unexpected US Open results from the night before, but I forced myself to get over it as the day wore on. I'm pretty sure we even played tennis that day after school, as I remember falling asleep feeling pretty exhausted.

Then,as if seconds later and still half asleep, I wondered why Tom Brokaw seemed to be crying on TV!
In those days I still had some belief in the media and always watched the Today show during the week and given the type of programs they usually had in the early morning--this --whatever it was seemed very odd.

I rubbed my eyes to fully awaken, and still thought that I was watching some new kind of show they were promoting and switched channels frantically to see if everything was normal there. It was like I had a mental block, and my brain refused to accept what my eyes were telling me.

The World Trade Center was my favorite building in the USA and the first we had visited on our arrival in the States in 1989- and NOW it was burning and people were leaping out of the windows?

--Fucking Unbelievable--how could this be?

And the rest is history, and it seems nothing was ever really normal again, and that day just the beginning of the on-going nightmare of bloodshed, wars and mayhem that never seems to stop, once started.

And yet we have also come a long way since then, and the Inauguration of our President Obama did a lot to reverse the terror-factor for me. And for the time being l try to block out the "Party of No", which is surely just a huge zit on the face of this country and sooner or later set to burst.

Our president is just getting started, and I am very impatient these days--so I stay away from politics as much as I can--but I did listen to his speech on health care last week and was once again thrilled to have such an intelligent person in the WH--especially on days like this one.

There was no tennis today--since it's been raining since early last night--and I think that it was totally appropriate, in remembrance of all those lost souls.

And just one more thing--Pete Sampras did go on to win one more US Open tournament the following year!

...only to quickly put that into perspective with the attacks two days later. Not much of a celebration for Lleyton that year...

I miss those buildings. Still think they should be rebuilt.

Eight years, wow...