The Day After: Has America Turned the Corner on 9/11?

Yes - a fifth anniversary of any monumental event is cause for introspection, a searching around for explanations. And when the event is as tragic, with such enormous repercussions, it becomes not just another milestone, but a major opportunity to sit down by the side of the road to ponder, deeply ponder.

Talking to my brother in San Diego, I discovered that he was no longer complaining about business. He has a technology company, with about 35 employees, and most of the time, over the last five years business has not been very good. He's not the type to outright complain, but it isn't difficult to hear the strain in his voice.

And he coughs a lot when he's under pressure.

Yesterday he wasn't coughing, or complaining. In fact, he said, life was pretty good. His youngest daughter was just getting ready to head off to university, and business was...great.

I was curious about this. Up here in Canada it's easy to get a distorted picture from the media. All the talk about a real estate bubble ready to take down the economy, fuel prices at historical levels (OK, so they've come down a bit in the last couple of weeks), and a lame duck president who's not going to go out quietly.

"I think the country might have turned the corner," my bro said.

He listed a few top-of-mind things that made a good deal of sense to me. The lame duck, for one. It is possible that most Americans, regardless of which side of the political divide they comb their hair over, may be feeling somewhat relieved that The Great Decider is heading back to Crawford, Texas. Maybe with him will go a fair amount of animus that has collected around him.

And with him the gang of unlovelies - the Rumsfelds, Cheneys, Rices - who promised to unite but did so much to divide.

Then there's the war in Iraq. Everybody now knows it's inevitable that it will sputter to its unhappy conclusion, with a pull-out reminiscent of Viet Nam. And there will be a silent sigh of relief that will nevertheless set the leaves gently rustling, calming of our collective minds and setting us pondering about these past few years of agony and isolation in the world.

Maybe America has turned some sort of corner. It's certainly possible that the nation, grievously wounded and then unable to collect itself into a healing posture, has become fatigued with the hypervigilance, and therefore ready for some kind of peace.

These five year milestones will now give way to the other great anniversaries. The tenth anniversary, a full decade for the news media to reflect back on; the silver at 25, and the gold at 50.

September 11 will eventually take its place alongside Pearl Harbor, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King, JFK, and Hiroshima.

This is how life works. We remember, sitting by the side of the road, listening to the wind rustle through the leaves, that we are not the universe. It is much, much larger than us, more vital than any axis of evil, more than our greatest mistakes, misfortunes, and majesty.

Finally, our grief has the curve of the entire sky to cradle it.

Finally.