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11 september 2002

carry on

All of my New York City and Washington-based friends are well and thriving. They stayed.

When I was up in New York last December, I visited Ground Zero. I don't think I mentioned anything about it here. I suppose I didn't think I could tell you anything different than what you've already heard. My friend Paul and I walked up the church steps that overlooked the site. The place was packed with curious humanity. We didn't say much to one another, we didn't prop one another up on shoulders, we didn't take photographs. We didn't buy a FDNY t-shirt. He took my hand and walked me back through the crowd so we wouldn't lose each other. We walked to a less-crowded subway stop in TriBeCa and returned home.

Here's what struck me. It wasn't the hole in the ground. It was the charred buildings around it, and the unnatural feeling that an unoccupied space this large does not belong in Manhattan.

I am lucky, and so are my friends and family. I think that we're lucky to recognize our good fortune in the first place, to be able to distinguish the riff from the raff, and carry on with our work and our lives. I don't think that between us, we've got one flag or snarky t-shirt. We all have plans to arrive at work in the morning.