As soon as Tim Wilson heard, he tried reaching the Seeds of Peace office in New York City. He tried reaching friends, colleagues and his daughter, Paula, who was taking the subway uptown for a class when a plane struck the World Trade Center.

“It was just one of those days you live beside the phone trying to catch up with people,” said Wilson, 70.

With cell reception down, he waited hours before hearing from Paula.

“She described it to me; it was chaotic,” Wilson said. “People were coming to the tunnel beside the (subway) tracks because it was safer underground.”

Now a Seeds international adviser, he’s been involved for almost 20 years with the Otisfield-based camp that encourages young people from around the world to talk out their differences.

The events of that day didn’t directly affect Seeds of Peace, which had closed for the season. State police already helped with security there. Staff were already subject to background checks. Other camps did call in the aftermath and ask for advice, said Wilson, of Portland.

That day, though, affected the country, he said. And not in a good way.

“When we have a catastrophe, there’s no better country at stepping up and helping people, but everyday life, we don’t,” Wilson said. “9/11 is bigger than just what happened on 9/11. We are more separated as a society than we’ve ever been.”

He believes the schism between rich and poor has widened, that people are less willing to listen to each other and that the culture has turned more mean-spirited.

“(It’s) exacerbated the economy. You can’t have guns and butter. You can’t fight wars and have food on the table,” Wilson said. “Osama bin Laden, we chased him around, we got involved in places — what kind of country would we have been if we didn’t do that? That’s food for thought.”

When he looks ahead 20 years, there’s some pessimism, some optimism.

His daughter Paula is now 33. She writes, dances and acts. Wilson described her as “a woman who’s living her dreams.”

Last month, she was in Europe doing that, and once again Paula had her parents worried.

“She was in London when the riots were going on,” Wilson said. “We called her, ‘Which side of London are you on?’ ‘Dad, I’m on the other side, no big deal.’”

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