Discovered on October 13, 2001:
On September 10, 2001 at 9:08 pm, less than 12 hours before the infamous terrorist attack on
America commenced, I posted a message on this page saying,
Temporarily Unavailable
Sept. 10, 2001
Screen Grab, Oct. 13, 2001
(colors changed some in image compression)
This didn't dawn on me until this morning, October 13, when I went to take the message down,
having reloaded a downloadable zip file.
Besides being ironic, I tend to believe there is a message of hope here. Let me explain.
My having to take down this download option for a time was just another of many strikes to hit
my life, that included both hard drives crashing, a phone being inaccessible for 1.5 weeks, and my
internet connection being inaccessible for nearly a month. The first thing I composed
following the attacks on Sept. 11 was an essay
comparing this series of misfortunes in my life to what may be coming to America. I compared
the downing of my two hard drives with the collapse of the two towers in NYC. The conclusion
of that piece was that if those misfortunate events of my life were indeed given to me as a sort
of prophetic parallel to what the nation and world were about to face, then we could expect that
we would be hit by several misfortunes that would severely cripple us for a time, but that in the
end we would recover without ever having been completely disabled.
The recovery today of this page with its downloadable zip file of the entire website, a feature
taken down just hours before the attack on America, to me is a happy omen that we will come
through this okay.
And it won't be because we've not been changed by it. We will come through a more
resolute and humble people. If we had given in to our baser desires to give in and give up,
our nation would have become a depressing scene of hopelessness and near utter destruction.
I had another happy omen this morning as well.
Yesterday morning, for the first time, I taught my 22-month-old boy, Christian, about the
rising of the sun. Every few minutes, I would point in the direction the sun would be
popping its head over the mountains.
Well, this morning, when I looked out the window, I could see that there was an opening in the
clouds just where the sun would be coming up, in an otherwise overcast sky.
Yesterday, almost as if in anticipation of this morning's discovery, the near opposite
occurred. The sky was relatively clear in the direction of the sunrise, but there was
a little symmetrical band of clouds as if making a picture frame around where the sun would come
up, leaving an opening for the sun to shine through.
Sincerely,
Sterling D. Allan
October 13, 2001
