Here's Hoping

As John painted the nursery on Sunday, I watched a documentary on the National Geographic channel called Inside 9/11. The show was terrifying in its detail of the events leading up to 9/11 and the horror that unfolded on that day. It immediately transported me back to that morning, the one John and I spent in the airport about to board a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles where we would then connect to Maui. We were standing in line to board the plane, surrounded by couples in Hawaiian shirts, when we heard a man on his cell phone behind us announce that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. The next two hours were completely surreal, sitting in a crowded airport café watching news coverage of the towers falling and the befuddled reactions of pilots, flight attendants, and passengers as they heard the news.

The show illustrated the very best and worst of human nature – the men and women who courageously gave or risked their lives to save complete strangers and the religious fanatics who in their own minds justified the killing of thousands of innocent people in the name of God. It also made me think about the world that I am bringing my daughter into and my hopes for her future. I hope, first and foremost, that she will be healthy and safe and not live in a world where she has to be afraid when she goes to school, to the store, or to work.

The rest of the list goes something like this:

I hope she will be left-handed, so I can teach her how to hold a pencil, tie her shoes, and swing a tennis racket.

I hope she will have John’s straight teeth and my good eyesight.

I hope she will love macaroni & cheese as much as I do.

I hope she will not love Vienna Sausages as much as I used to.

I hope she will never smoke.

I hope she will find something she loves to do and become very good at it.

I hope there will still be coral reefs and polar bears in the world by the time she’s old enough to travel and appreciate them.

I hope there will be a female president in her lifetime, but not one with the last name Bush, Rice, or Clinton.

I hope she will not hate or condemn people solely on the basis of their skin colors, religious beliefs, or sexual orientations.

I hope she will share a long and happy life with someone she loves as much as I love her father.