That's 9/11+1 by the way. That's actually only part of it as the number goes on forever. I'd love to turn that into a fitting allegory but it's quarter to 12:00 and I'm starving, over caffeinated and under nicotteinated so the brain juices aren't flowing too well.

It's the day after 9/11 and I'm feeling much better, thank you very much. A tour around the blogosphere shows that I wasn't the only one who was a bit out of sorts yesterday either. As things return to a more normal atmosphere (mostly my mood) I remembered something else very important that I discovered on 9/11/01. You don't have to be a citizen of the USA in order to be a patriot. My wife is a German citizen (Don't bother calling the INS on us, she's here legally). On 9/11/01 and the following days my Lovely Wife showed a love and passion for the States that I have seen on very few Americans (and I served with Marines for 4 years). She was just like a mother whos child was attacked. She was fierce and outraged and unbelievably frustrated that she couldn't help.

I guess the mother/child allegory is fitting as this is her adopted country. She does not wish to become a citizen - Germany is her homeland and always will be. At one time this bothered me. After all, if you're going to be living in a country for the rest of your life shouldn't you, at a minimum, embrace that country as your own? Well she has embraced it and far more intimately than a great many people who take the tests, pay the money and say the official words. She embraced the United States in her heart and the events of September 2001 allowed me to finally see that.

That's my Lovely Wife. German. American. Patriot.