I forgot how the heat encompasses you during a summer in New York City, but it certainly could not be ignored as I walked out of Penn Station into the busy streams of pedestrians coming from all sides last month. I lived in NYC for just one summer, and it was long enough and short enough for me to still feel romantic about it- all the food, the lights, the people, the seemingly endless mass of neighborhoods and boroughs. Play Jay-Z and Alicia Keys "New York" in the background...
During this visit, I had a chance to visit the 9-11 Memorial. I'm not sure how to put this- I'm not someone who was personally impacted by this event, just someone who was struck and saddened by the tragedy like any other American. I am patriotic in the sense that I love and acknowledge the freedom and privileges that most in our country can enjoy, and believe that the U.S. still has a lot of people who believe in being a force for good and have the ability to come together in strife. But I'm not someone who wears red, white and blue or will have flags in my yard. All this is to say that despite all that, I saw the reflection pools and all I could say was a breathless, "Whoa." The two pools sit where the twin towers were. The vastness of the pools, seemingly bottomless, quietly expresses a mutely deep grief over the loss of so many innocent lives. And maybe a mourning for the pre-911 America. It seems like so much has changed since then (or am I just older and wiser now?)- it's unleashed a blind "patriotism" and a vitriol that maybe was always simmering under the surface. Maybe it's just fear. But in honor of the day, this week I choose to remember the times when the country came together and were kind to each other, and hope that memories of those days will sustain us and lead the way in the decades to come.
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