Can't Sleep

I'm not sure why but I can't sleep tonight. It's almost 11 and nothing. I did sleep in today, I was up at 0830. This could be bad news for my Monday if my body won't sleep.

I went to visit the Healing Fields of Central Iowa on Friday night. If you are unfamiliar with the Healing Fields, it is a place where they have one flag for every victim of 9/11. We did several stories on the Fields, but I hadn't been -- so I went Friday night. 2,988 flags. When you look at the number of people that died on 9/11 that number just seems cold and distant. When you see 2,988 flags waving in the breeze the number becomes real and personal. When you walk through the flags, you are walking through the lives of 2,988 people. You stop and read the names. The pentagon, World Trade Centers, four different flights. The number becomes real. I didn't realize how many people were my age. I found people who were the same age I was when the attacks happened and they were killed. Were they interning at the Trade Centers? Were they flying as part of an exchange program?

My other thought as I walked through was seeing this many flags in one place. I was in England the summer after the attacks. One lecture we went to stuck out in my mind. You don't see the Union Jack flying many places in England. To them that sort of display is distasteful. The lecturer even pointed out the wave of patriotism that swept the United States after 9/11 and the flags that appeared on everywhere. I remember thinking that few people outside the United States could understand what our flag represents. That memory kept running through my mind, each time I stopped to read a name, or unwrap a flag that had become tangled around its pole. Even if our flag doesn't mean anything to people around the world. It means something to me. It means something to a lot of people.

Well those are my thoughts for now. Perhaps I shall try to sleep again. We'll see if the effort works out better this time.

By the way...I have a new blogger site. On my links list to the right, you can find a link to "My Pictures." I am going to start uploading some of the pictures I have taken around town to share with all of my friends and family.

Cheers.