I wanted my children to know that 9/11 was not just another disembodied news event, so, about a month later, we drove into New York and had dinner at the Odeon Café, which was still serving free meals to fire fighters and construction workers. Then we walked around the area where they worked day and night to remove what appeared to be ten stories of rubble. Besides the construction activity, many people kept a vigil around the memorials, and others, like us, struggled to conceive of the horror and scope of the destruction.