Heroes

Romance authors write about fictional heroes. But today, on 9/11, it’s important to stop and remember the real-life heroes from that awful day in 2001. I'm talking about the firefighters and police officers who responded to the terrorist plane attacks at the World Trade Center, the office workers who helped each other down endless flights of stairs as they made their way out of the burning buildings, the passengers on board United flight 93, who prevented a worse tragedy from happening in Washington, DC. Heroes all.

I’ve often wondered how I would respond in an emergency like that?

Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler showed us how. Adrenaline, courage, and, according to Alek’s dad, “patriotism” allowed the lifelong friends to storm an armed terrorism suspect on a Paris-bound train last month, saving countless lives.

But heroes don’t always do big things. They’re the volunteers in this country who help out at soup kitchens, tutor underprivileged students, provide a ride for a neighbor to a doctor’s appointment. Not big things, no, but those small things are big to the people on the receiving end.

Who was it who said, “To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be the world?”

Take a moment today to remember the victims of 9/11 in New York, Washington, and a lonely field in Pennsylvania, as well as the brave men and women who rushed to help.

Heroes all.

Jenna

www.jennaives.com

A Journey to DC and the Ancient Past

Last week while in Washington DC for the RWA national conference, a friend and I visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History among other things. I thought I'd concentrate on this museum today because it would be a great family activity (our theme for this week.)I admit it, I'm a nerd when it comes to science and prehistoric animals, etc. I watch all the educational TV shows about dinosaurs, whale evolution, Neanderthals, etc. So as you can imagine I was thrilled to be able to see the Tyrannosaurus rex, but it is only a cast. Still, the huge size of it was amazing. Here are some of my favorite pics.

Archaeopteryx (cast) 145 million years old, the earliest and most primitive bird known. Because it displays a number of features common to both birds and dinosaurs, Archaeopteryx has often been considered a link between them—possibly the first bird in its change from a land dweller to a bird.

(above) Pterosaur, meaning "winged lizard,"often referred to as pterodactyls, were flying reptiles that lived 220 to 65.5 million years ago. Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight.
Triceratops lived around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the extinction event.

A Coalified Stump.

(above) Mammoth and other animals.

Dire Wolves, became extinct approx. 10,000 years ago.

(above) One of the saber-toothed cats. Sabre-toothed cats were generally more robust than today's cats and were quite bear-like in build. They were believed to be excellent hunters and hunted animals such as sloths, mammoths, and other large prey.

One of the tiny, prehistoric horses, 50 million years old. Check out this neat recreation of one of the ancient horses.

These pictures only cover a small portion of the Museum of Natural History. There is also a large display of stuffed animals in The Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals. The Hope Diamond was also on display, along with many other things. Since we were in a hurry to do all our DC sightseeing in one day, we didn't get to linger. We came, we took pictures, we left all in an hour or two. But it was awesome!