Remembering 9/11

I know a lot of people will be writing and posting about that day 10 years ago. It changed life for all of us, even if only in the way we plan for travel. For most of us it changed the way we think about the world.

If you're curious, I was in a religion class when I found out. It was a 9 am class, and a student came in late talking about the first plane. We all assumed it was a small plane that had gotten lost. At my next class (Anatomy lab) the TV was on, and we watched the second plane hit. Class was cancelled, and we trekked to the Union to sit with other students and watch the news. Where we watched the Towers fall.

My memory of that day is no different from most people my age, but the way I think about it may be. You all may know I'm not a religious person, despite my Catholic upbringing, though some parts of it make sense to me. Several years after 9/11 I read a book that changed the way I look at religion, and life, forever. I tell everyone I meet, religious or not (though I hesitate with some of the ultra-conservative Catholic types.) It's called Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore. It tells the story of Jesus (called by the Hebrew version of the name, Joshua) through the eyes of his childhood friend. Now that might not sound like an entertaining or interesting read, but it really is. Moore is hilarious and irreverent (which is why I won't ask, say, my father to read this book) and brings an element of whimsy to the story. I laughed out loud while reading it, but that's not what made the impact.

You can't expect to read a book about the life of Jesus and not get some religious messages. Lamb describes the "lost years," between the Nativity and the beginnings of his actual preaching, as a search for the meaning of life across different Eastern religions. Joshua and Biff travel to Tibet and learn about Buddhism, to China to learn about Taoism, and to India to learn about Hinduism. It's an interesting look at the basics of each religion, but more importantly, the similarities. And the most important similarity, the one that almost every religion in the world is based on, Moore calls the Divine Spark.

It's the idea that God, or Allah, or the Goddess, or Mother Nature, something greater than us, lives in each and every person, making us more alike than different, and uniting us. It's the fundamental belief of every religion, and that idea is what floored me. Of course we learn about the Holy Spirit in Catholic school, but we don't learn what that actually means. If people stop and really think about that before they speak, or act, there is no way anyone could ever condemn another person for anything. All these so-called Christians that hate homosexuals, or foreigners, or undocumented immigrants, or people of a different race, are hypocrites. They can quote the Bible left, right and center, but miss the actual point. They can claim to be "touched by the Holy Spirit," but clearly have no idea what that really means. People that say they hate Muslims because a small, misguided group of them attacked our country a decade ago would do well to read Lamb and think about the message before they say or do anything stupid.

As a family friend once said, "Ignorance can be fixed, but with stupid you're stuck." I would like to suggest that in remembrance of those who were killed by some ignorant people 10 years ago, we try to fix ignorance around us. My small contribution is to recommend Lamb to anyone willing to open their mind a little.

Snowmageddon 2011

They're calling it the storm of the century. The worst blizzard to hit the Chicago metropolitan area in 40 years or more. At it's height, snow was falling at three inches an hour.

It all started around 1pm Tuesday afternoon. At first it was just wind, then really strong wind... then the snow started. Just a few flakes at first. But enough to start the panic. The zoo has contingency plans, of course, and the call went out to all staff. The zoo was going to close at 2, and after all duties were complete keepers were allowed to leave after that. A curator was staying overnight, and a list of staff that lives close (including me) was compiled. No one knew exactly how bad the storm was going to be, but we were ready.

After work, I (stupidly) decided to head up to Jim's for the night. His apartment is way warmer than mine. The bus was very, very slow, so I walked. Normally it's a 15 minute walk, but I was gawking and taking photos. The walk took me about 45 minutes. I'm also very glad I invested in some good snow boots a month ago. Here's a shot of what I was walking through...

Jim and I settled in to watch the blizzard and some TV... and then it happened. A bright blue flash lit up the sky and then we heard it.... THUNDERSNOW. That's right, there was thunder and lightning in the middle of the blizzard. It started around 7pm and went on for several hours. Thundersnow is my new favorite word, by the way.

This morning I took the bus back to my place to get my ski pants and goggles for the trek into work. Buses (amazingly) were running relatively on time. The main streets (Broadway, Clark, Fullerton) were clear, but the side streets (mine, Jim's, etc) were not plowed at all. And no one had shoveled/snow-blown their sidewalks. This made for some treacherous walking. But I had my trusty snow boots, and my goggles to keep the wind out of my eyes.  Here's some of what I saw on my way in to work...

A side street... I hope no one needs to move their cars...

Walking down Fullerton. The guy and his dog reminded me of a post-apocalyptic movie.

Fullerton was closed near the shore, and so was Lake Shore Drive. We heard reports of waves blowing over the drive last night, stranding some cars. Only one person died in the storm, and he was walking along Lake Shore last night.

We are very lucky at the zoo, we have some of the best snow removal guys out there. The had (sort of) cleared the hospital driveway, but neglected to clear the giant snowbank in front of the door. And by giant, I mean it was as tall as me. 

It continued to snow for most of the morning, this time with less wind, so the snow was fluffy and pretty. Lake effect snow, I'm told. Around noon it started to let off, and the sun came out around 1pm Wednesday morning. So in 24 hours, we got about two feet all together. We got more snow in this one day than the entire previous two months. All in all, a pretty good winter.