Remembering...and Living
Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of 9/11, of course. It is a sad irony that such a hard day comes at a time when New York is at its most beautiful. The weather yesterday was almost as clear and crisp as it was on that horrific morning four years ago. The air was warm, but if you felt carefully, you could sense the cool of October and November implicit in the breeze of the early September morning. The sky was cloudless. Some of the leaves on the trees are starting to turn. Around the city, Andres Agassi was playing his heart out against Roger Federer, the Giants were smashing the Cardinals, and the Yankees were beating the Red Sox, 1-0, in that wonderful and rare thing, a pitchers' duel, won by a home run from my underdog hero of the year, Jason Giambi.
It is a day to remember, but if you can help it, not a day for sadness. I tried to honor the lost of 9/11 by celebrating this city. And so I traveled across the park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I walked the show of fabulous cabinetry by
18th-century Rhode Islander John Townsend, as well as an exhibit detailing how Matisse drew upon 19th-century textiles for the colorful backgrounds of his paintings. Walking along Fifth Avenue, I spotted an older couple dressed for a wedding, carrying one of the table planters from the reception. Sweet. I walked back across the park, and saw thousands of New Yorkers enjoying life—lovers and families rowing boats in the pond, friends having a beer at the boathouse, strollers walking their dogs by the 72nd Street fountain.
9/11 hasn't ruined or devastated this city, as some once feared it might. It provides a day for New Yorkers to appreciate all that we enjoy here, and to show how life can carry on, will carry on, despite the most permanent of losses.
I hope it is not too long before the people of New Orleans come to know this truth as well.
