I had my best night's sleep so far at the Jerry's house at West Yarmouth at Cape Cod. The body clock seems to be back on track, thank goodness. The 3am to 5 wide awake periods were getting a bit wearing.

Today is 9/11 - the anniversary of that searing wound on American consciousness - and indeed world history.

Regardless of what you think about the response of the US and its faithful allies - like us! - there can be no denying the horror of the original event. Spending time here this last week and reading the reflections on the day in the press has made it clear that the hurt is still very real. Ruth observed that there would have been few people in New England who did not know someone who had been affected by the event.

Jerry and I spent the early part of the morning watching the ceremonies at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and the site of the crash of the plane that had been brought down by the passengers. The Americans have a great sense of ritual, and the ceremony at Ground Zero in particular used the elements of silence, speech, readings and music to remember the nearly three thousand who were killed. While I remember seeing it happen on TV that evening (for us), I really have to confess I hadn't sensed the profundity of the impact. Leave aside the blow to America's sense of itself as a world power, and all the games the politicians play, the senseless loss of life and livelihood that impacted on so many families was staggering.

The only blot on the horizon today was the exclusion of the first responders - mainly firefighters - from the ceremonies. They held their own - as they have every year - for the over 300 of their number who died to save thousands of others. Nearly one in every ten who died was a firefighter! To cap the day off, we watched a documentary about the firefighters. These guys had started doing a film about a probationary officer, and his squad was the first to respond. The sense of immediacy was incredible. It had been updated for the anniversary. One guy has already died of multiple myeloma, another has multiple cancers. Several are clearly all deeply depressed. They all live under the shadow. Kept thinking of Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" all day (have a look at the clip ) -I listened to it while I was pulling out weeds to give Jerry a hand. (Their cottage is fantastic - but 2 acres of gardening would discourage me!).

Had a fabulous meal cooked by Ruth on our return to Boston while we watched the program, did some laundry and called it a day.