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Where were you on September 11, 2001? The American psyche changed forever on September 11, 2001. How did 9/11 affect your life?
The quality of early September light always reminds me of 9/11. Obviously. Because 9/11 happened on 9/11. The light and the smell in the air this time of year will always bring each of us back to that day every early September. There is an abundance of research lately on how the different qualities of light effect every cell in our bodies and our circadian rhythms. Unfortunately, the crystal blue skies of early September will always remind me of jet planes crashing into skyscrapers.
When I was running this morning the song "Let the River Run" came on shuffle mode. The song took me right back to the late 80s and the footage of lower Manhattan from the movie Working Girl. The hairdos, make-up, and everything else captures the innocence (mixed with greed) of lower Manhattan in the late 20th century.
On the Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001 I had the volume on my answering machine in the living room turned down and was happily enjoying my morning coffee while reading the paper. Around 9 am my phone start ringing off the hook and I didn't know why. I wasn't in the mood to talk on the phone and let the machine get it.
When I listened to my first message it was from my friend Dominic who lived on the 12th floor of a Jane Street apartment and called me saying, "Chris, are you watching this? I saw the first plane hit the World Trade Center..." Later he described it as a surreal experience with sparkling shards of glass flying across a crystal blue sky.
The Twin Towers were beautiful at night.
9/11 was a perfect September morning in Manhattan. The sky was crystal blue. When I think back to that day my most vivid memories are of the quality of light in the morning and the white dust and blackness that engulfed the city that afternoon.
There used to be a ceramic store on Greenwich Ave that spontaneously started letting people glaze tiles in memoriam to all the lives lost on 9/11. They hung the tiles on a chain link fence at the intersection of Greenwich and Seventh Avenue in the shadow of the old St. Vincent's hospital. It became known as the "Tiles for America" project.
My favorite tile for years was a simple blue tile with two small silhouettes of the Twin Towers in black with the words: "THE SKY WAS SO BLUE..." written across the top. That tile became an old friend as I walked up and down Greenwich Ave.
One day, I was walking along Greenwich Avenue as per usual and looked casually to my left to say "hello" to my friendly tile and noticed that someone had taken wire clippers to the fence and stolen it. That broke my heart. I left Manhattan soon there after.
Conclusion: Family, Friends, Art, and Physicality are Key
When I was a kid, "Windows on the World" was my favorite restaurant. I would beg my dad to take us there for special occasions. My father took a picture of me (in the middle) with my two sisters on a wall either at the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island. I'm not sure where we are. Clearly, my mom had a penchant for dressing me in Jackson Pollock pants and striped shirts. Thanks, Mom! :-)
After my dad died in 2007 I went through all the Kodachrome slides he had taken. I love seeing the Twin Towers in the upper left corner of this snapshot as they were being built. I believe we can rebuild our innocence. I think social connectivity, art, and daily physicality are the best places to start to reconnect to everything we lost on 9/11/01.
