From my other journal, dated September 10, 2002

I plan to skip as much of the 9/11 coverage tomorrow as I possibly can. It was a horrible thing to watch the first time around and I don't think I can bear it again. When I told my father this, he said, "Well, you should watch it. I think it's important that people watch it all so they don't forget."

How the hell can anyone ever forget it? Things like that just don't slip from the collective subconscious of an entire nation of people simply because the event has passed. We still remember Pearl Harbor, do we not? And Viet Nam? We even remember the freaking Alamo, and none of us were alive to witness what happened there.

I do recall what happened that morning. I had been up late with Zoe, who was a little less than two weeks old at the time, so I slept in until about 9 or so. As always, the babies needed their pants changed and breakfast (we have a routine, thank the Goddess), so I didn't even turn on the TV until close to 9:30 am, and put it right on Nick Jr.
The phone rang as I was rocking Zoe. Without even saying hello, Larry said, "Are you watching the news?"
I told him no and asked what was going on.
He said, "Turn on the news."
"What channel?"
"Any channel."
I saw the buildings collapse a little while later.

I have no calling to relive that horror.

Thanky much, but no. I'll watch Nick Jr. with my kiddies instead. I'm sure I'll see some things but I don't need a day-long barrage of those same images to give me bad dreams and make me cry. John Walsh's talk show debuted this week and so far all the topics have been 9/11 related. As much as I admire, love and respect that man, I can't watch more than a few minutes of the show.

I regret taking down my memorial site. It was making me sad to visit it, but I feel now that deleting it was the wrong thing to do. I think perhaps I've made a compromise that will help me at least maintain a small memorial and not experience such dread at the thought of visiting it; keep things simple. Instead of an entire site for memorials that will need to be constantly added to and revised, I'll create a single page for the ones that I felt a special calling to remember.

9/11.
Holly Lee Blake.
The Salem Witch Trials.
Baby T. (Submitted by anonymous. Very sad).
Daniel Pearl.
The Armenian Genocide.
The Holocaust.
John Lennon.
Marilyn Monroe.

Each one will have a picture, a burning candle graphic and a link to a site that gives the right information (except for Baby T and Holly Lee Blake, for whom such information doesn't exist). Before I was trying to write out eulogy-style captions under each picture and it was becoming more and more painful to do. I'm still not quite sure I understand that, seeing as I never met any of them.
Rebuilding just seems like the right thing to do.

~~~~

On to happier things.

I discovered today that one of my very favorite authors has his own website. GaWaNi Pony Boy has authored some amazing books on training horses via the traditional Native American method. It's called Relationship Training. The idea is to establish a loving, friendly relationship with the animal rather than break it's spirit. The method is quite successful. I have two of his books; Horse, Follow Closely, and Time Well Spent: A Journal. He seems like a very spiritual man and his natural sensitivity and intelligence are well expressed in his writing. Also, the photography is amazing. He dresses in Native American clothes as well as jeans, and in many of the pictures his face is painted. The horses look healthy and well cared for.
He has the most amazingly beautiful face.

I've often felt that Native American traditions and Wiccan / Pagan traditions are not that different in terms of the basic principles and most of the practices. There's the same reverence for nature and the same love of life and living things. That same sense of being one with the universe.

His work completely reinforces those ideas, makes me feel as if there's a strong connection between our two communities that hasn't been explored yet.

Witches and Native Americans have so much to learn from one another.