Memories of 9/11
Quote de jour
"Action is the antidote to despair."
-Joan Baez
This is the only photograph I have of ground zero. It was taken during the democratic convention four years ago. Here we go again. Another election. I feel we are no wiser.
I didn't want to photograph the gaping hole. We all know only too well what it looks like. It remains a bloodied and scabby sore, seven years later. It doesn't take much picking at the wound to begin its oozing, bleeding again. Real healing requires more than a band-aid. It begins from the inside out.
I moved from Canada to New York a few weeks before 9/11. Timing is not always my strong suit. The city teemed with energy and possibilities. I was getting married in October and the world was a beautiful place. A couple of days before 9/11, I traveled by train from my new home in Westchester to Manhattan to do some shopping. I stopped in a designer's studio in Soho to pick up my wedding dress and then headed to Century 21, the department store directly from World trade Center. Being a newcomer with a poor sense of direction, I kept looking up at the twin towers to guide me in the right direction. They did their job and I found my destination with ease. In retrospect, maybe my timing wasn't so bad after all.
"Action is the antidote to despair."
-Joan Baez
This is the only photograph I have of ground zero. It was taken during the democratic convention four years ago. Here we go again. Another election. I feel we are no wiser.
I didn't want to photograph the gaping hole. We all know only too well what it looks like. It remains a bloodied and scabby sore, seven years later. It doesn't take much picking at the wound to begin its oozing, bleeding again. Real healing requires more than a band-aid. It begins from the inside out.
I moved from Canada to New York a few weeks before 9/11. Timing is not always my strong suit. The city teemed with energy and possibilities. I was getting married in October and the world was a beautiful place. A couple of days before 9/11, I traveled by train from my new home in Westchester to Manhattan to do some shopping. I stopped in a designer's studio in Soho to pick up my wedding dress and then headed to Century 21, the department store directly from World trade Center. Being a newcomer with a poor sense of direction, I kept looking up at the twin towers to guide me in the right direction. They did their job and I found my destination with ease. In retrospect, maybe my timing wasn't so bad after all.
in 2001, in August, we had just come back from a family trip to D.C., and we were stuck on a bridge at dusk in Manhattan. In the distance, were the twin towers. My kids said. Oh cool. My husband said, someday, we will go there.
That was the last I've seen of them, and the only time my kids saw them. I never saw them up close, nor was in them.
Such a horrible time.
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It was actually about August 30 or 31. so close to September...
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So close and yet luckily far. My husband had dined a few times at Windows On The World and always felt a foreboding.
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I moved to New York in February of 2001. On September 11th, I was on my way to a breakfast meeting but was one of those many who were late that day. I chose to be late that morning so I missed being right in the middle of it all (and who knows whatever fate being on time would have brought me). I did witness the second plane hitting the towers...and I know what you mean about healing. I don't take pictures of the gaping hole either. It's enough to see it everyday when looking at the skyline.
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