How Soon?

Are you ready for September 11 all over again? Theater chains are anxiously waiting to see how "United 93" will be received. If you aren't up on your recent American History, United 93 refers to the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania before it reached its intended target five years ago this fall. "One of the reasons why Flight 93 exerts such a powerful hold on our imaginations is precisely because we don't know exactly what happened," says the film's director, Paul Greengrass (best known for his work on "The Bourne Supremacy" and "Bloody Sunday"). It's a nagging bit of time that cries out for definition.
I sat on the couch a few months ago, dazed and terrified by A&E's "Flight 93" - the TV movie version of the same event. My wife and I watched the inevitable unfold, and tried to imagine those moments of lingering goodbye. The politics ceased to be important, just good guys and bad guys. Sure enough, the plane hit the ground in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and then everything else changed.
I remembered walking up the stairs in my mother's house after watching "The Day After" back in 1983. I leaned on the kitchen sink and looked out the window into the street that was still there. I pushed the horror of nuclear war back to my subconscious as I stared at the lights from the living rooms across in the neighborhood. The events depicted in that movie never happened, but they could have. It was an economy-size "What If" designed to make the unthinkable just a little more tangible.
The events of September 11, 2001 don't live in that world anymore. Wars are being fought, business is being conducted and lighters are being confiscated because of what happened that day. Oliver Stone is gearing up his rendition, and Adam Sandler will star as a man who lost his family on September 11 and is still grieving. The Hollywood machinery is beginning its digestion of the people and times and places. I'm not sure I'm ready just yet to dive in again. I don't usually get through Bruce Springsteen's "You're Missing" without a tear.

"Pictures on the nightstand, TV's on in the den
Your house is waiting, your house is waiting
For you to walk in, for you to walk in
But you're missing, you're missing"