Tonight/today we're bombing Afghanistan, with cruise missiles and medicine and food and supplies. The Emmys have been cancelled and postponed... again. (Poor Ellen will never get to host it at this rate.)

Those who died in the sneak attack are "sinners" in Bin Ladin's words, and the rest of us are just...puzzled. Puzzled by such intense hate. Wondering what we have done to earn such...and realizing that there is nothing ---rational---that could earn such utter and intense hate. He's a fanatic looney tune. He makes Jerry Fallwell look reasonable.

At a time like this, individual lives might seem petty and boring. Yet that's what either side is fighting for, isn't it? The right to live their lives free from such terror?

Welcome to a somewhat different issue of Lives On-Line, a combination weblog/ezine, a monthly look at the best of on-line writing of the personal revelation sort.

I tend to give preference to those journals who I haven't spotlighted before. All the excellencies are the individual writers', and all the fault for picking an entry is mine, as editor.

Humor:

Even the humor is scary this month: meet the Creature from the Black Lagoon, otherwise known as the Centipede from Hell, in "Welcome to Texas (Reprise)". That's from MAXIEGIRL.

Or sample a rather...unique diet plan in "Buggy Bug Bug". That's from POUND.

Another bit of humour that could be seen as the ultimate in horror: buying a house. "Does buying a home mean you have to sell your soul? Hint: The answer starts with a 'Y.'" is inspected for your horrified pleasure, he said with a Rod-Serling tone to his voice. That's from TERRIBLY HAPPY.

"A Day of Unemployment" stresses that the best way to do so is Run Errands all day...and then runs through them, in hilarious fashion. That's from DIARY OF A PINEAPPLE GIRL.

Drama: so many to choose from this time....

Well, I think TOMATO NATION tells about her experiences during the World Trade Center collapses in "For Thou Art With Us" in a way that really brings the horror home.

"Middle-of-the-night Ennui" tackles the night fears many of us are having in the wake of the terrorist attacks. That's from TERRIBLY HAPPY.

"...The Sky Turned Black" is a blow-by-blow of witnessing the horror from the Jersey shore. That's from EVERYDAY REBELLIOUS.

Well, I think it's dramatic...and non-terrorist-realated...and should be almost required reading for anyone in a heterosexual relationship...how to break out of a sexual mis-cycle. Read "A Pertinent Issue" from (NOISE). Continue to "Part Two".

Slice-of-life:

In "Mirrors and Miracles" Tesserae tries to recapture normalcy, to make contact with her daughter's condition and the frightened girl that Tesserae used to be. That's from the always moving LANTERN WASTE.

"Dark September Day 1" starts sort of a 6-day American Oddyssey during this oddest of times, and what the country was like during it, as she drove here from Canada. That's from DARK SEPTEMBER.

FIFTEEN THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT TORONTO makes me want to go there. In a few days. Might not be the best day to travel, tomorrow...that's from TOMATO NATION.

"Crazy Redneck" deals with odd phone calls and why the driver in the car controls the radio. That's from HASHAI.

Miscellaneous musings on the attacks, and the aftermath:

If nothing will bring home the horror that hit New York City, "It" will. The mention of the smell---a previously untouched area by the media---got to me. It will get to you, too.

"Everything Changes Now. Everything." catches the haunting silence of the skies after the attack, when all planes were grounded---and the horror that happened. That's from the usually hilarious THE INSULT. Then check out "Is There a Wrong Way", of coping in the aftermath. Then finish it with "A Very Special Entry".

Check out "It's Just Impossible" about the impossibility of coping with what is happening in your very special city...which has suddenly become not-so-special. That's from SPANKLIN.

Life during the attack from THE FINE LINE.

It's frightening times. When the world is at war, maybe the lives of two people don't amount to a "hill of beans", in Bogie's memorable phrase in Casablanca. But if individual lives don't matter---what in the world is worth fighting for? Worth living for?

Here's hoping next month will be happier.