I lived in Jersey City in 2001. The morning of September 11th, I watched the towers fall from my girlfriend’s window.<\/p>\n
A friend who lived in the apartment building with me wrote this and sent it to me. Thanks Laura.<\/p>\n
I planned to ignore this day. Somehow thought if I just went to work, didn\u2019t think about it, shouldn\u2019t think about it, I could escape an artificial point in time. I mean it\u2019s just a date, right? Just another Manhattan Melodrama. One the media and politicians are hyping, just a point on the calendar no different from any other. Ha. On. Me.<\/p>\n
Walking to the A train I can\u2019t help but look more carefully into the faces I pass. Do they feel more today? Are they afraid? Are they aware? I\u2019m fine, I\u2019m fine, I\u2019m fine, I\u2019m fine, it\u2019s just another Sunday.
\nThen, in the station, a God Damn violinist. On the dirty platform, echoing along the blocks. It\u2019s beautiful, it\u2019s poignant, it\u2019s tragic, it\u2019s hopeful. I avoid other faces and dig my nails in between my fingers to stop the tears. Tentative glances show me I\u2019m not alone. In fact, we were all connected by the music. Listening, remembering, feeling, praying.<\/p>\nThis tender melody, these eyes I dare look into, erase the years and make it all real again. And I realize, every day is an act of faith. Getting on the subway, sending our kids to school, worrying about our jobs, loving, caring. It\u2019s faith that we\u2019ll get there safely, that those we love will be taken care of by others, that there will indeed be a tomorrow to worry about, that anything we do actually matters in some small way. Not blind faith where you go off and do something reckless, but faith still. That our government and neighbors will do the right thing, that hope is worth fighting for, that there is more good than evil, that life will get better.<\/p>\n
When the option is despair, I chose faith. Still\u2026\u2026.every time I leave the apartment I think – could I run in these shoes? So I strap on my sneakers and go out the door. I Thank God I have the chance. And honor those who don\u2019t, by remembering .<\/p>\n
Ps: Yes I gave her money \u2014 she probably made $100 bucks in ten minutes. Best concert ever. In my subway church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I lived in Jersey City in 2001. The morning of September 11th, I watched the towers fall from my girlfriend’s window. A friend who lived in the apartment building with me wrote this and sent it to me. Thanks Laura. I planned to ignore this day. Somehow thought if I just went to work, didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}