Once I won a contest to be the toastmaster for the Great Guinness Toast. It was an all expenses paid trip to NYC, and the toast was slated to happen live onstage at Roseland with BNL. That was in November of 2001. Remember how scary flying was right after 9/11? For my wife and I, the excitement of a free trip to NYC was the catalyst that snapped us out of our paralyzing post 9/11 flying fear and forced us to get back to living our lives. Quite a trip. We visited Ground Zero and upon witnessing the remnants of this country’s single worst terrorist attack just two months after it happened, all the breath in my lungs left me. It was not until that moment that I cried for those people, the victims and the people who lost them. Strange, the path that led me to that spot in November of 2001: a weird internet contest to be a Toastmaster for beer. Being there in 2001 allowed me to see with my own eyes the devastating blow to the NYC skyline. I’ve mostly forgotten the thrill of being onstage with BNL, but I’ll never forget the moment the magnitude of that attack took my breath away. I’m not sure it ever came back.
