terrorism begins at home

So how about that foiled terrorist plot in England, huh? This one in particular reeled me in because of that short vacation to London I’m thinking about taking this fall. Will this cause me to change my mind? Hell to the no! If I ultimately decide to make the trip, then I will make the trip. If I decide to postpone it until the spring, then I will be doing so because of financial and/or time issues—not because of a fear of terrorists.

Look, I’m the same as anybody else: I don’t want to die in a terrorist attack. I don’t want to become a casualty of extreme, mindless violence. I don’t want to become a statistic in this so-called “war on terror,” a notch in some jihad-happy terrorist’s bedpost. But I don’t want to cripple my life, either. I don’t want to surrender my vacation, or avoid riding the tube or busses when I’m in London. I live a mere 10 miles from the White House, but I don’t want to avoid going into DC and riding the Metro. This weekend, if I can squeeze out the time amidst my freelancing schedule, I’d like to hit the Jim Henson exhibit at the National Museum of American History, and because parking near the Mall can be a bitch on weekends—especially during high tourist season—I will take the Metro. I don’t live in Tel Aviv or Beirut or Baghdad, but the threat of terrorism is always real. It could happen. But I don’t want to put my puny social activities on hold just because of what could happen.

If I do go to London this fall and terrorists knock my plane out of the sky or my tube out of the ground, well, it’d be a damn shame, but at least I’d have my affairs in order. I have a will, I have assigned guardians for my cats, I have two life insurance policies. I can’t do much more than catch that plane and hope for the best.

On a completely unrelated note—and one that is highly frivolous, all things considered—I’m planning to take off work tomorrow and go to the beach for the day. I haven’t gone swimming in the ocean since 2002, so lately I’ve been thinking about how lovely it would be to spend a day alternately bobbing around in the waves and lolling on the sand, reading a book and napping. I’ve got my SPF 50 sunblock, I borrowed a beach umbrella from my boss and a cooler from my sister, and I’m planning to buy a large beach towel tonight. I’ll hit Subway at some point and buy myself a tasty lunch for the cooler. I’ll head out by 7:30am tomorrow, hopefully getting to Delaware Beaches State Park by 11am. Mmm-mm!



song heard most recently before posting: Woman Like a Man—Damien Rice