In September of 1986, Lovelle’s life changed in the most dramatic fashion. Every plan he had been making flew right out of the window. On that particular day, he was watching the news when a story came on that redirected his focus in life. What he saw was terrorists holding a plane hostage on a runway. A terrorist organization, headed by Abu Nidal, had hijacked an Egypt Air flight and forced it down in Malta. The end result would be 20 deaths, but, it took only the sight of that plane to remind Lovelle of September 11, 2001.
His thoughts turned to the 3000 or so people who were to die on that day. He remembered the pictures of grieving family members. He replayed those awful images of people plummeting to their certain death in order to escape what must have been to them the more unspeakable fate of burning alive. He remembered vividly the sight of the towers crashing to the ground. And he thought “maybe I could stop that”. And maybe he could stop the nation from going to war in the aftermath, and save those soldiers as well.
His memory of the details of the plot was sketchy at best. Remembering names and dates was not his strength. But he knew that he had to try. He knew enough that, if he were in the right position, he might really be able to stop them. And he was young enough that he could put himself in the right place. There really wasn’t even a decision to be made. He couldn’t choose not to do this. This was a calling that was bigger than him and any desires he might have. If there were some purpose for him being placed in this time, with the knowledge of the future that he possessed, he couldn’t imagine a better one.
And this new focus, this sense of purpose, liberated him from all of those concerns he had for his personal life. He wouldn’t allow himself to brood over them anymore. He could deal with them as they came up, decisively and without rehashing them over and over. He just simply could not let them paralyze him anymore. Micro analyzing every move was no longer his pastime; it was a waste of time.
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