A Sad Anniversary

Today is the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Andres and I went about our business as normal, which I think is the best way to behave. From the looks of it, most New Yorkers went about their business, too, perhaps slightly subdued or perhaps in defiance. But life is normal, despite what happened here four years ago.

This evening Jon and Doris came over and we ordered in Thai food, listened to music, watched the Simpsons, chatted and caught up on life. When I walked them to the door as they left, I walked outside and I saw the Towers of Light. This powerful symbol is erected every year on 9/11 and it almost took my breath away the first time I saw it. I've seen it for 3 years now, but it never fails to sober and sadden me when I see it again.

Alice Sebold wrote a beautiful op-ed piece in the New York Times today, reflecting on remembrance, entitled Living With The Dead. These past few weeks, when we have so much to mourn in the wake of the hurricane, have been very painful. I thought she put it beautifully when she wrote:

"What can the living do in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, where loss has greeted us twice on a national scale in such a short span of years? These tragedies, it's worth remembering, grant us an opportunity to understand what is perhaps our finest raw material: our humanity. The way we at our best treat one another. The way we listen to one another. The way we grieve....so grieve for the particular lives that come to you. Think of the grandmother slumped in her wheelchair under a plaid blanket, or the body of a young financial analyst from West Virginia who was never found but whose smiling face still greets us from a Web site of the dead. Let them guide you to understand that it is our absolute vulnerability that provides our greatest chance to be human."

Seeing those towers of light helped me stop and reflect tonight.