today at night president bush addressed "the nation" on this 5th anniversary of the tragedy simply known as 9/11. i took that moment to wash my dishes. yesterday there were several specials about that day. i did homework and this morning the papers discussed who got the highest ratings - american football, apparently. and still it seems the best way for anyone to get ratings, sales or votes.
this morning i also had awful dreams involving planes being shot down by fighter jets and crashing into the ocean. and at work and talking to my neighbours (which i do on occasion) i got the sense that many were trying not to think about it yet couldn't forget. a metlife blimp floated by and a coworker commented on how inappropriate that seemed, on this day, in lower manhattan.
i thought about a story a friend shared with us about his ex-wife. she was lucky to escape the twin towers and took off, walking uptown. and walking. and walking. she kept telling herself - don't look back, don't look back - as though she was afraid she would turn into a pillar of salt if she did. when she was asked why she didn't look back she replied - i don't know. it just felt as though everything would be okay if i just didn't look back.
so today, as i was walking home from the subway station, i bumped into a neighbour who said, look at that, isn't that beautiful? i looked. two pillars of light, stretching into the night sky. and i thought, wow, a lot of people who had nothing to do with anything die needlessly.
when and how do grief and loss become so political?
3 comments:
I can't imagine what it must have been like to have been in the city.
There have been specials here in the UK and newspaper stories.
And yes i know i should be asleep right now.
BTW Thanks for checking out all of my blog I just found your note about that...
i hear you, reb - my television has been off most of the time. i watched about 5 minutes of footage from 2001 and it was just a bit much for me.
fb - it is also way past my bedtime AND if i am awake i should be doing homework and yet...
what happened here, what happened in london last year, what happened in kenya and tanzania, it is all so awful. i think it is sold a lot more here but loss is loss and when you can't find a reason for it (when can you ever?) and then when when it is on tv all the time, i don't know.
and thank you for sharing all you have on your blog. checking it out was the easy part.
The world is not the same since then...
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