Very interesting topic. HZ was full of reactions to the event, and has been full ever since with reactions to reactions, as it were: the aftermath, at home and abroad. But I don't recall that we've ever discussed how -- if at all -- we might have been personally changed by it.

I've been thinking about it since I found this post last night, too late to reply and still get a decent night's sleep... and my initial conclusion was that I was not changed at all. My beliefs about human nature, both good and bad, were reinforced. So were opinions I've always held about the dangers of fanaticism, and the nearly-invisible line, so easily crossed, between patriotism and jingoism.

The only genuine change I can detect in myself as a result of 11 Sept 2001 -- and it took a while to realize -- is a stronger avoidance of news about catastrophe, whether natural or man-made. 'Morbid fascination' is even less a part of my nature than it may have been before.