=========================================
September 12 – 2021 – This is an update to my story – In 2021 we have just experienced another major catastrophe with the Covid pandemic, following on the heals of 4 years of the Donald Trump presidency and the January 6, 2021 insurrection in the United States. Major disruption are usually shocking at first and then ……. la di da ….. the resiliency of our “ways of life” lulls us back into complacency. The following story is an eye opener ….. I just re-read the whole thing for the first time in a while …… what will our world look like 20 years on?
=========================================
Like Dickens said “the best of times and the worst of times” ……. If we step back from the hubbub of our daily lives, a little perspective can often teach us things ….. Things we might not see otherwise. The infamous 9-11, as it is called, holds a big place in the history of our world …… it holds a big place in my heart ……. A place that I had unconsciously hidden for many years …… a place that is the foundation for this little story ….. the details are relatively accurate ….. The feelings …… memories .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks
Imagine a dream ……. you are having a dream where you are falling ……. Maybe out of an airplane ……. Maybe off a building ……. Maybe into a deep deep hole ….. No matter what you do in this dream …… you just keep falling ……. You have no clue where the fall ends …… just keep falling …… hold that thought ……. more on the falling later.
I traveled to New York City last month (February 2018) for the first time since 2001 at the invitation of my sculptor friend Belle Tuckerman http://artebella.me/ Our expectation was that we would do the standard tourist stuff ….. Times Square …… Central Park …… Fifth Avenue ….. Belle reminded me that we should also visit the 9-11 Memorial https://www.911memorial.org/ My first reaction ….. Absolutely!!!!! …….. Why not? …… An important piece of history – right? ….. And I didn’t think much more about it.
As we all know, a group of 19 Al Quaeda terrorists hijacked 4 airliners in September of 2001 and crashed two of them into the Twin Towers of what was called The World Trade Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_(1973%E2%80%932001) ……. The third hit the Pentagon in Washington DC …… and the fourth targeted Washington DC but crashed into a field in Pennsylvania when the airliner passengers overtook the terrorists.The two office towers crashed to the ground within a couple of hours and close to 3,000 people perished ……. thousands more survived the destruction and suffer to this day in many different ways ……. Their own lives, those of their families, firefighters, policemen ….. The suffering and the impact continues ….. and remains immeasurable!
And of course …… our society being resilient as it is …… life goes on …… in fits and starts …… we adapt and keep going ….. Easy to lose sight of the fact that the 9-11 tragedy slowly resulted in dramatic changes to our way of life …… security measures that impact us all everytime we get on an airplane …… security line ups that we take for granted ……. scan your carry-on …. take off your shoes ….. Laptops in a separate bin ….. Body scan …… Prior to 2001 people would never have accepted those line-ups ……. would have caused major frustrations ……. Now …… show signs of frustration in the lineup and security will detain you ….. you might not make it through security ….. You could miss your plane …… these changes appear …… take effect …… and lo and behold …… those dramatic changes are normalized.
But wait again …… let’s back up to the Year 2000 ……
The “Best of Times” – I guess it was late July or early August 2001 when my family planned a vacation to Upstate New York. I don’t recall exactly how it all happened but we decided to piggy back our vacation with a business trip that I needed to take to NYC. I flew out to meet with a business colleague …… we did our presentation and we went to see the World Trade Center after our meetings ….. Doing the tourist thing …….. The Two Towers ….
The central structures of the complex were amazing buildings …… 2 buildings 110 stories tall ….. Tallest in the world when they opened in 1973 ……. Looking up you could see them swaying in the wind …… literally awesome ……. Awe inspiring!!
A couple of days later Mona (my ex wife) and the kids (Ryan and Alanna) flew in. We went to Central Park …… we stumbled across the bronze statue of Alice Through the Looking Glass https://www.centralpark.com/things-to-do/attractions/alice-in-wonderland/ ……. and then …… we went to see “Cats, The Musical” (its last month on Broadway was September 2001) ….. I can’t remember whether we saw more …… we then went on our vacation to the Lake George area in upstate NY …… we stayed in a lodge that had been owned by one of the New York robber barons like Rockefeller or Vander Bilt …… stayed for a few days before returning to California ….. And back to work ….. Typical tourist stuff!
The “Worst of Times” – Back in California, I usually went into work early and at some point I noticed that my boss, Patrick Schmidt, FFF Enterprises CEO https://www.fffenterprises.com/ was in the conference room watching TV ….. Highly unusual …… so I went in and realized what had captured his attention ….. at that point the first two airliners had crashed into the World Trade Center towers …… two 110 story towers crumbling …… the panic in the streets ….. It was incomprehensible …… it was like it was not real ….. Of course at that point we had no idea who or why such a thing would be done ….. The devastation was unimaginable ….. Airplane traffic over the United States was halted for the next few days creating massive disruptions and concerns everywhere in the country and the world ….. and that was just the beginning ….. for the next few hours, days, weeks ….. the television coverage was continuous …….
We would learn more and more about what actually happened, who was behind it, why they did what they did ….. George W Bush would attack Iraq starting what is now known as the Gulf War II …… another war in Afghanistan …… they ultimately would find and kill Osama Bin Laden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden…… the purported mastermind behind the attack …… the world would spend billions and billions of dollars …… our society would change a little bit at a time ….. never to return to what it had been.
Later in October or early November I traveled to NYC again for another business meeting ….. I decided I would go and see the World Trade Center site not really knowing what it would really be like ….. the cleanup was underway ….. contractors were working on taking away the rubble ….. the realization that thousands of bodies were entombed in these piles of metal and concrete ….. it was overwhelming!
I decided I would walk the perimeter …… Imagine a large city block ……. Maybe 400 meters on each side …… you might have seen a building that is being demolished in order to make way for a new building ……. it was kind of like that except that it was this giant mound of rubble ….. As you approached you could hear the sound of large machinery doing something …… as I walked the perimeter, every once in a while I could see through gaps in the fencing …… I knew in my heart that there are human bodies there …… being uncovered …… with huge excavators and wrecking balls ….. ghastly!!!
At one point on the north side there was a view into the whole site …… I could hear the wrecking balls pounding on something or other and I saw what eventually became an iconic image of that disaster …… a pile of rubble that held an American flag atop some of the metal claddings that were still intact. (this image was pulled from the internet)
It was a heartbreaking moment …… why?
Why would people do this? …… for some reason I decided to call my sister Geri on the phone …… we spoke about the whole thing ….. Geri said she could hear the wrecking ball as I could. It was a very emotional experience to say the least.
Well …… back to my story …… Last month (2018) I flew from Calgary to Toronto and then from Toronto to NYC landing at LaGuardia Airport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaGuardia_Airport As I approached the airport in the distance there clearly was one building that stood above all of the other skyscrapers ….. I would later realize that it was One World Trade Center ….. the new replacement building. As the plane landed, wouldn’t you know it ….. there was Donald Trump’s private Boeing 757 parked along the runway …… (yucky feelings in my stomach over that) ….. Take a cab into the hotel …… Belle arrived from California an hour later ….. Late dinner ….. Breakfast in the morning …… walk in Central Park …… back to the hotel …… breakfast the next day ….. “Hey …. Let’s go to the 9-11 Memorial …… OK!!!” ……
We rode the New York City subway from Times Square down to the World Trade Center ….. I guess about a half hour ride …… we came out of the subway and were surrounded by smaller three to four story buildings (typical of older NYC) which prevented us from seeing the new buildings right away. We continued walking toward the memorial and as we turned a corner the new tower came into view ….. An absolutely beautiful building in and of itself …….. deserves the time to go and visit …… the architect and owners of the building have created a masterpiece …. the tallest building in New York ….. 1,776 feet tall …. the Freedom Tower. But the awesome building itself was just the beginning of this experience for me.
We approached the complex from the southeast corner and began our walk across the plaza toward the tower. As we walked it became evident that the two “Memorial Pools” were between us and the tower ….. as we walked closer it became clear to me that …… this was important ….. something unexpected was about to happen …… I had totally forgotten that there were these pools as part of the memorial …… I had no recollection or awareness of where or how these pools were supposed to fit into the World Trade Center story.
I suppose I am much like most people …… one hears the ideas and the stories but they often just don’t register …… they don’t make it into our longer term memory …… or maybe we just put them out of our minds so we don’t really have to think of the horror …… the horror that brought this place into existence ….. only to be replaced by something …… something like this memorial plaza.
In any case here we were hearing what sounded like the roar of a huge waterfall …… but there is no water to be seen ……. Cognitive dissonance they call it …….. The roaring sound does not match the apparent serenity of the plaza …… hundreds of people but serenity ….. Quiet …… all other sounds muffled by this sound of water falling getting louder and louder as we arrive at the rim of the pools ……
Surrounding the rim of the Memorial Pools is a railing of black granite engraved with the names ….. and some say “the spirits” ….. of every one of the 2,977 who perished on 9-11-2001 (number varies slightly depending on the source)
Whoa!!!!
A few more steps and we can see the water …… falling ……. Falling away from the edge ……. Beneath the railing is a chasm that is about 70 meters square where 52,000 gallons per minute flow over the edge ….. The water falls about 10 meters where it pools on another sort of shelf …….. only to flow again toward another chasm where it falls again to an unseen depth ……. The roar of a waterfall …… falling from here to ….. falling into nowhere!!
A waterfall like no other ….. Some say it is the largest man made waterfall in the world. The following Youtube video barely approaches the feelings of being there:
The designer ….. Michael Arad …… A 34 year old who was a staff architect for the New York City Housing Authority prior to winning the competition for the design of the pools ….. He literally did an incredible job!!Why do I say that? …… I say that because nothing I have written comes close to describing the effect these pools had on me ……. I was physically impacted by the emotions that enveloped me in those moments.
My experience was my experience alone ……. I am certain every person that visits the 9-11 Memorial will have an experience of their own …… an experience that touches each of them deeply in ways that I am not able to imagine.
Oh yes!!!! …… getting back to “Falling” ……. As I approached the edge of the pools ….. I felt like I was being emotionally sucked into the pool of the spirits of 911 …… of those 3,000 spirits who perished that day …… not like anything real but the memorial created a level of discomfort that was real …… a pool of spirit ….. a Falling …….
So …… The Best of Times and the Worst of Times ….. We each experience life in ways that are both beautiful and horrible. I do my best to experience those ups and downs in ways that help me to better understand myself and those around me.
Thanks for taking the time to read my story!!! I hope you have a chance to go visit this memorial and feel your own emotions ….. A memorial to 9-11 ….. an event that changed the world!!!
