Remembering: With the 5-year anniversary of 9/11 earlier this week, I've been doing some thinking.

I was working on a project in downtown Chicago when the attacks occurred, and was driving to the train station when I heard the news on the radio. I still remember the song that was playing - Eve 6's "Here's To The Night." I heard about the New York attacks in the car, and the Pentagon attacks while I was on the train. By the time I got to work, I ended up turning around right away. I think there's something about wanting to be at home, with friends and family, during a time like this, but there was also the real uncertainty about whether Chicago was also going to be target. The train schedule was completely abandoned, as they pulled a train into the station, loaded everyone on it that could fit, and pulled out, just to pull another train in. I spent the commute standing up, trying to get in touch with my parents on my cell phone. I finally got through near the end of the trip, and Dad assured me that as far as he knew, our family in New York and around DC were all safe. I spent the rest of that day and the next in front of the TV watching the news, occaisionally doing something else, but with the news always as a background.

I remember thinking that day that the world as I knew it had changed, that the idea of war and battle would be a part of our lives and not just the words of history. And, for a while, that was true.

The problem is, I forget that we're at war. I always had this impression of the World War II era, that everyone had a good friend or family member fighting, that they scoured newspaper reports of those who had died, praying they didn't recognize any names on the list. That might be an overly-dramatized impression, but nonetheless, that's what I expected. But here I am, working for the Navy on the largest naval base in the world, and I can actually forget we're at war.

I know a few people who have had tours in Iraq, more if I count less-than-direct connections (a friend from home, the son of someone at my parents' church, my friend's cousin, another friend's fiance). Still it doesn't feel real, and it doesn't feel like my life is different because we're at war. Shouldn't it, though?