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lagilmanAs things turned out, this evening we ended up near my old stomping grounds in NJ. And because we were there, I asked if we could make a detour. We pulled into the Eagle Rock Reservation, and the 9/11 memorial.
Ten years ago, it was just a gorgeous vista, overlooking the NYC skyline. Ten years and two days ago, it was where many NJsians (myself included) found themselves, watching the ravaged skyline, trying to come to grips with the world, and mourning together. Today, it is a painfully lovely memorial, the wall overlooking the skyline engraved with the names of every single person who died that day, not only in NYC.
I haven’t been back there in years, I didn’t know the memorial had become such a presence, including a twisted spar of metal taken from the wreckage – today, draped in flowers, as people came to pay their respects.
And as we walked back to the car, the eleven-year-old, out of nowhere, said “if it was winter, and this was all covered in ice, by morning it would be melted by salt.”
Brilliant kid, him. And yes.
And then we went and had hot fudge sundaes, and talked, and laughed. And drove home across the GWB with the pillars of light as our companions.
And tomorrow… is tomorrow.
Ten years ago, it was just a gorgeous vista, overlooking the NYC skyline. Ten years and two days ago, it was where many NJsians (myself included) found themselves, watching the ravaged skyline, trying to come to grips with the world, and mourning together. Today, it is a painfully lovely memorial, the wall overlooking the skyline engraved with the names of every single person who died that day, not only in NYC.
I haven’t been back there in years, I didn’t know the memorial had become such a presence, including a twisted spar of metal taken from the wreckage – today, draped in flowers, as people came to pay their respects.
And as we walked back to the car, the eleven-year-old, out of nowhere, said “if it was winter, and this was all covered in ice, by morning it would be melted by salt.”
Brilliant kid, him. And yes.
And then we went and had hot fudge sundaes, and talked, and laughed. And drove home across the GWB with the pillars of light as our companions.
And tomorrow… is tomorrow.
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Date: 2011-09-11 01:53 am (UTC)That's quite a beautiful piece.
Every year, the towers of light makes my breath hitch. Every year, I seem to have forgotten about them. About their punch, about the emotion. And sometimes, when the world is going about it's business and it's not the anniversary, the punch is still there.