Maybe there is a thread already... I hope I have posted this in the right place...

Since the news of Bin Laden's death within the last hour (at post time) I have thought back on some major things in life as well as what actually brought me to my present world of miles, points, travel and airline-isms.

It was mentioned on the news that every time any of us go to an airport, we are presented with things that are the way they are because of this one man and his efforts to cause problems for America and the world.

It affected me personally because my own father was a victim of AA flight 11 and since that time I had gotten into this almost survival-mode type of thinking for a while...

You come to really re evaluate the need for family, other loved ones and friends. You look around and care about people you have lost and people you know who live far away from where you are now. You slow down in some ways, and you have to go faster in others.

You also start to think with some stress in your every day life--I know I did at that time. Everything was about security and preparation all of a sudden, and sometimes that just plain stinks. It's also really inconvenient. But you do begin thinking this way and you have to in order to cope.

For example, what would you do if you had a fire in your home, or had to leave immediately, etc. What would you bring with you?

There are so many important things, but face it, in some trivial aspects, I suppose you'd grab your money, keys, checkbooks and important papers too... for me, I included my mileage statements because I had earned some award points and well, they were mine and it was time to really pay attention to this stuff. Anything, in fact, that had that sort of value was something to pay attention to. Maybe it was the stress. Maybe some was impractical or just plain silly, but I guess I got overwhelmed and had to deal with it, and my thinking I had some sort of control over the fate of these little miles and points gave me some sense of control over my current situation. I dunno.

Anyway, it was because of this that I joined a website forum called the frequent flier forum. And later I found and joined FlyerTalk shortly after running the NYC Marathon. Hence the name. And NYC had a new connotation for me and my family--a strange familiarity that one often only associates with being home, even though all it really was was a nice city to visit time to time, a home to a rival baseball team and the new de-facto burial site for my late father. maybe his spirit was making me feel a different thing about the busy place, and now I must say that whenever I visit, I do feel rather... happy to be there.

And I owe a lot of my own travels to places my father had been and to many he never got the chance to enjoy, to this place we often call home as well.

That's my story and tonight, since Bin Laden is dead, it kinda makes sense to me a bit more. Hope others have thoughts on this stuff as well.

MM