September 11 on NPR

NPR aired an incredible story about the artist Christopher Saucedo, whose younger brother--a firefighter-- died in the September 11th attacks.

Christopher and his brothers remembered watching the Towers go up when they were boys and ironically it was in trying to save people in the aftermath of the attack that his brother--who loved being a firefighter, as all firefighters do--tragically lost his life.

Later, Christopher and his wife moved to New Orleans--where their house was flooded and destroyed by Katrina. They moved back to New York and their house was then destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.  Listening, I thought of the story of Job--as the string of tragedies seemed too much to bear.

For the full story of Christopher's artistic responses: http://www.npr.org/2015/09/11/439236972/after-sandy-katrina-and-sept-11-this-sculptor-finds-art-in-survival

Later, as I was driving to get some primer, I heard snippets of Science Friday and will listen to the whole story on my laptop later today--a discussion in which the founder of Brainpickings discussed the importance of reading to children to build their brains.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/09/11/2015/the-science-of-story-time.html

I've often wondered how we'd manage without TPR's programming.  I remember listening to it on September 11, 2001, as I was driving home from UTSA, frantically wanting to get home and call my kids.  Tom had recently left his job at the Pentagon, Will was a firefighter, and Day was pregnant with Jackson and on bed rest.   I felt I had so many points of connection to the victims of that tragic day, imagining the plight of young mothers whose husbands died and feeling anguish with the families of the firefighters who died.