Lauren Manning and her family
This is something really different from what I normally write. But you see, fashion did bring this post to my mind. This years September issue of Vogue was indeed so packed with the highlights of Kate Moss’s wedding, a glorious Mod photo shoot directed by none other than Grace Coddington, Karlie Kloss’ extreme moments of culture in China, beautifully photographed by Mario Testino/directed by Tonne Goodman, and hundreds of well done advertisements. But the one thing that really made my heart skip a beat was the article on this woman whose name is Lauren Manning. One of few that survived 9/11. It’s an excerpt from her book, Unmeasured Strength, and with just reading her recollection of the incident I am already hooked. And hey, I know money is hard to come across these days… but while in the grocery store, pick up the Kate Moss Vogue and READ IT… page 376, “A Will To Live” with the Chanel perfume ad next to the article. Feel free to shed a tear in public, because really, the fight this woman puts up for her life, and family is… stunning. Manning had to go through 6 months worth of rehab because she had been unfortunately burned. She was only on the bottom floor and within seconds of walking into the World Trade Center her fight for living began. Lauren Manning, if you do read this… know that I salute your bravery, determination, and patriotism. The States needs more bold folk like you to stand up and speak the truth. Thank you!
I remember September 11th, 2001 as if it were another lifetime away. I was only 6 years old, really confused about what happened in New York. I remember coming home from school and seeing my mother crying and sobbing on her bed with the radio on blasting about the incident. I looked up at her so scared and asked “Mom, what is wrong?”-and amidst all of her sobs I remember her looking into my eyes and saying “…Many people died. Bad people took an airplane and crashed it into some buildings. Those buildings had many innocent people in them….” I guess I had a little comprehension as to what was going on after hearing that. I remember seeing it all over the news channels later that night as well… it was really surreal to watch 
and see that people could actually do these things. And then I asked myself, “Why would people do this?” Remember I was six years old… so I didn’t understand “why” for a while about all of this. I distinctly remember the next day going to school and my 1st grade teacher talking about this, she even got out a few newspaper articles. Do any of you remember the figures that came out of the smoke? Seeing those faces in the smoke… as a child? It was really scary, actually. Those really 
distinct faces that gushed out of the smoke were the first time I had ever heard of Satan and seen him in full throttle action. It was odd being told all of this as a kid, and yes a bit questionable of the teacher to really show us these images at that age… but I look back and am thankful. Exposing such truth and honesty to us was a good thing. It’s one of the many themes of life and having it up close as a scared 6-year-old has taught me plenty of things.
You know those far-fetched but terribly quaint books called A Series of Unfortunate Events? Those were my favorite books through my grade school days… they were so deep and had themes that an 8-year-old kid hardly understood! But I remember one of the characters saying something like this, “There are bad people who start the fires… and the good people who put them out.” The theme of “good versus evil” at its 
best, no? The attack just made me think about the series and the theme itself. Maybe some of you might think I am naive and hardly know what I am writing about. The measures and hungry battles we have fought because of this attack. I know. I wanted to look back on this because… well for one 10 years is a fine mark. And two, look how much progress we have made! Whether it be our success in the Middle East, or killing Bin Laden. We have come far as a nation, I’ll tell you that much. We have further to go, true… but with what some of you call “The Big Man Upstairs,” or who I like to call God… I know He is looking out for us. It has been 10 whole years since the attack… let us remember 9/11 and the innocent people who died by the hand of evil. Do give time to remember the bad times we have had… but keep your heads held high, no matter what happens in life.
