{"id":111,"date":"2015-02-05T22:34:54","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T22:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawrencedavis.org\/?p=111"},"modified":"2015-02-14T16:09:20","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T16:09:20","slug":"september-11-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/2015\/02\/september-11-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"September 11, 2003"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Originally published by Lawrence Davis on September 14, 2012]<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBy then I knew that everything good and bad left an emptiness when it stopped.\u201d
\n— Ernest Hemingway<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The seemingly inextinguishable fire had long since been put out. The sickening smoke that drifted across the Hudson River to Jersey City (where I live) for at least six months had finally floated into the atmosphere.\u00a0 The photocopied entreaties after lost loved ones that had once covered every lamp post and telephone pole in Manhattan were mostly in tatters.\u00a0 The gigantic pit that was once the World Trade Center was clear of the remnants of absolute destruction.\u00a0 Local trains were running on local tracks and express trains were running on the express tracks.\u00a0 You could get on the west side highway and go all the way to the Holland Tunnel once again.\u00a0 Our city, knocked to the ground for a long time, was on its feet once again, still a bit wobbly, but standing upright nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\"Straightened<\/a>In August we received an inquiry from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.\u00a0 Could we provide some student musicians to play at the solemn September 11 ceremonies taking place at ground zero.\u00a0 August is tough for us.\u00a0 The summer session ends and the fall students are still scattered to the four winds.\u00a0 However, we did find two wonderful players \u2014 a flutist named Elena Sandoval and a violinist named Joshua Rim.\u00a0 They, along with many other student musicians from across the city, would play quietly in the background as the names of the nearly 3000 victims were read by family members and friends.\u00a0 I would go with them to make sure everything went smoothly.<\/p>\n

We had to report to the intersection of Vesey Street and Broadway at 7:30 a.m. to check in and receive our credentials.\u00a0 Both Elena and Josh were there on time.\u00a0 We picked up our credentials (mine read \u201cGuardian\u201d) and we were led to a tent on the edge of the pit off of Vesey Street where we were asked to wait until they were to play. In the tent were folding chairs, a TV monitor tuned to the coverage of the ceremonies, and about 20 performers, parents, and guardians sitting quietly.\u00a0 The atmosphere was pretty relaxed given the gravity of the event. We found out that Elena was going to be the first performer playing.\u00a0 She was as calm as could be.\u00a0 Shortly after, Josh\u2019s father showed up and joined us.\u00a0 He is a professor at Columbia University, a scientist.<\/p>\n

As the ceremony began, Elena, played (and was on camera on national television) and the first two family members began to read the list of names.\u00a0 The reading would follow a pattern \u2014 Robert A., Sally B., Joseph C., and my beloved son…\u00a0 In the meantime, Dr. Rim and I started talking about many things.\u00a0 He really is an interesting man and we moved from topic to topic.\u00a0 All the while people were swooping in and out of the tent.\u00a0 Mayor Bloomberg stopped by and, in a very dignified way, thanked us all for being part of the day.\u00a0 Assistant Commissioner Kathleen Hughes came by to ask my advice about something.\u00a0 Governor McGreevey of New Jersey stopped by briefly.\u00a0 Performers were coming and going and all the while the names continued, \u201cmy loving husband, my wonderful sister… how we miss you.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the hours rolled on, the situation was starting to seem a tiny bit surreal to me.\u00a0 Everyone was going about their business, keeping things organized.\u00a0 We were just a few feet from where people were performing and where family members were reading a very long list of names and despite that proximity, we saw absolutely nothing that we couldn\u2019t see if we stayed home and watched it on TV.\u00a0 I\u2019m chatting away energetically with Dr. Rim on subjects far and wide.<\/p>\n

Finally, Josh played, really well as he consistently does, and we could leave. I said good by to Joshua and his dad. It was nearly noon when we left.\u00a0 The whole area was heavily secured.\u00a0 Police were everywhere.\u00a0 Everyone seemed busy, even as I moved away from the immediate vicinity.\u00a0 I walked the rest of the way across the island and caught a ferry to Jersey City.<\/p>\n

When I arrived in Jersey City, I suddenly felt exhausted.\u00a0 I sat down on one of the benches facing the Hudson River and I started to cry.<\/p>\n

And I could not stop.<\/p>\n

______________<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the fifth essay that <\/em>Lawrence<\/em> posted on his blog “Reaching In.”\u00a0 It originally appeared at lawrence-davis.blogspot.com. – <\/em>CHC<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Originally published by Lawrence Davis on September 14, 2012] \u201cBy then I knew that everything good and bad left an emptiness when it stopped.\u201d — Ernest Hemingway The seemingly inextinguishable fire had long since been put out. The sickening smoke that drifted across the Hudson River to Jersey City (where I live) for at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reaching-in-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/ldavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}