When an empathic person says listen, please, listen. My grandmother didn't, and she knows now this silliness. She didn't get hurt as a result, but she realised that when I say "something bad is going to happen and many people are going to die," she really ought to listen.
The event to which I'm referring is September 11, 2001. I woke up that morning with a low-grade fever, hence I would've stayed home from school. I was only 10 at the time. My birthday was in October, so this gives you some perspective of my age. Now, please note that I wouldn't mind putting this in the daylog for that day, but it's been too long, and besides, I doubt many noders would believe me.
When my grandmother woke me up that morning, I started shivering the second I opened my eyes. She felt my forehead and told me to go back to sleep, that I wasn't going to school. Then I uttered the immortal words.
"Something terrible is going to happen. Many will die." Nine simple words. As I turned over in bed, I got the distinct feeling that the entire country was holding its breath. Like teetering on the edge of a cliff is a great idea. At roughly 07:45 cdt, my aunt came in, shaking my grandmother into wakefulness and crying "Momma Momma, a plane just hit the towers!"
This made no sense to me, not knowing what the World Trade Center was, not really caring just realising how hungry I was. We walked into the living room and I asked, as the television played, when breakfast would be. The snapped "SHUT UP!" was enough to shut me up. However the muddled reports were bad enough to make me retreat into my study room and collapse into my favourite rocking chair, screaming for my aunt to "make it stop". She told me she couldn't and that God does things for a reason.
Over the next few hours, things went from bad to worse. I will not bother rehashing what was said in the daylogs, although, I will mention that being blind, I've never seen the New York skyline, so don't know what's missing out of that. Although, I can only imagine. And my heart is torn.
I do not wish vengance, for I know the atrocities of war on an emotional level. I come from a military family. They're also children of ministers, and I will not blame $deity for what happened. There's no point. But my eternal lesson is, if an empath says "Something's going to happen, please listen." I also cannot understand why we would want to nuke these sons of bitches into the ground. I can understand and empathize with the sentiment, but cannot condone it. Violence isn't the answer, and it will not bring our loved ones back, nor will it make them rest in peace. For those of you who were and are affected, I feel for you. Literally.
Now, some will say that I am crazy. You can say what you like. I know what I know, and I remember what I remember, corroborated by the testimony of my [family members that were at home that day. My grandfather didn't come home from work, but he did stay on the phone with my grandmother almost all day, as they silently watched the horrors unfold on the CRT before them.
All I can say is, I hope something of this magnitude never, ever ever happens again. And, for the sake of notation, I am in Texas. I have a feeling that's a long, long way from New York City. Although, I will say that the pain, the sadness, the fear and the fury that day were enough to almost incapacitate me for a day or two. And I still ran a temp. No explanation, other than a low-grade infection.
Update: 13:06 local time. I realised that I wasn't very clear in the beginning, so allow me to clarify. I know that she couldn't have done anything to stop the attacks. But her manner towards the utterance of those nine words was condescending and belittling. She still treated me like a child sometimes. But that's another node for another day.