Peter Jennings:1938-2005

Peter Jennings was my favorite anchor. I respected Brokaw and Rather, but Jennings was always my favorite. Growing up, he was always on the television right before we clicked it off to eat dinner. I feel as though he's been there a lot.

• He was there January 25, 1986, when the Challenger exploded.
• He was there to explain the significance of the Berlin Wall coming down.
• He was there when Operation Desert Shield became Storm and the first waves of bombings on Baghdad began in on January 17, 1991.
• He was there on the TV in Humbert Dorm on Nov. 22, 1995 when the Alfred P. Murrah building exploded in Oklahoma City.
• He was there on election night, telling us that Reagan had won.
• And then Bush.
• And then Clinton.
• And Clinton again.
• And then...Gore. No, Bush. No, Gore.

I watched him, exhausted as I was, trying to convey all the information he had about 9/11. His voice and face was comforting, somehow.

C.S. Lewis talks in his book The Four Loves about common love, in which we come to love and appreciate something simply because it's part of our life because we see it every day. It's a simple, basic, and in some ways selfish kind of love. But we miss those things and people because they were a part of us, somehow.

And I'll miss Peter Jennings.