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We mark the passing of time in relation to significant events. With the weather we’ve had in Florida recently I find myself referring to the Wednesday after Charley or the Friday before Frances. There is a generation that speaks of where they were when they learned President Kennedy had died, another the day of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster or, more happily, the fall of the Berlin wall. Today we live in a post-9/11 world.

I’ve seen the videotape of the planes crashing into the towers and their subsequent collapse many times. Had that played out in a Hollywood movie, I would have thought that the filmmakers stretched credibility a bit too far. I still have difficulty reconciling the images with reality. I don’t understand that level of hatred. And I mark that day as one on which my world changed completely.

On the same day, Emma was born. Emma is the daughter of friends of mine and we celebrated her third birthday today. She’s a bright and beautiful child. I don’t know what her world will be like or what events she will use to mark time. I know that terror seems tempered by the hope and promise in children’s eyes. I know that my world is better with my friends in it and brighter with Emma in it. And I know that each time we welcome a child into the world, our world changes completely.