A bit of self-indulgent blather

Two years ago this day I went to class at 9:30, and I did so again today, which is of no significance whatever, but it feels mildly cyclical.

Until I got out of class that day I managed not to know what had actually happened and was happening, and the extent to which people were suffering because of it. At this moment, I do not know the extent to which people are suffering because of it either, because that extent has broadened at what seems a terrifying pace during the past two years.

It's funny, I'd only been in New York for a couple of weeks then, and I can't say as I ever got a good, unobstructed, longer-than-two-seconds look at the World Trade Center during that time. I didn't even have that tiny, meaningless bit of grief for the way they anchored the skyline and apparently looked rather silly and magnificent at once up close.

I empathized, though. Especially when everyone was putting up flyers, with the pictures and the names and the little stories and always, worked on such and such a floor in one of the towers, and they want to know – can you give us any crumb of information? We drowned in fresh griefs, and certainly, it isn't difficult to make me feel the pain of your sad story. But now ...

"One cannot weep for the entire world, it is beyond human strength. One must choose." -- Jean Anouilh, Eurydice

A bit of self-indulgent blather

Two years ago this day I went to class at 9:30, and I did so again today, which is of no significance whatever, but it feels mildly cyclical.

Until I got out of class that day I managed not to know what had actually happened and was happening, and the extent to which people were suffering because of it. At this moment, I do not know the extent to which people are suffering because of it either, because that extent has broadened at what seems a terrifying pace during the past two years.

It's funny, I'd only been in New York for a couple of weeks then, and I can't say as I ever got a good, unobstructed, longer-than-two-seconds look at the World Trade Center during that time. I didn't even have that tiny, meaningless bit of grief for the way they anchored the skyline and apparently looked rather silly and magnificent at once up close.

I empathized, though. Especially when everyone was putting up flyers, with the pictures and the names and the little stories and always, worked on such and such a floor in one of the towers, and they want to know – can you give us any crumb of information? We drowned in fresh griefs, and certainly, it isn't difficult to make me feel the pain of your sad story. But now ...

"One cannot weep for the entire world, it is beyond human strength. One must choose." -- Jean Anouilh, Eurydice