Seventeen years ago today, I was working across the street from the World Trade Center in what was then called the World Financial Center. Here’s what I’ve written about 9/11 since I started this blog, from the oldest post to the most recent.
- 2007: September 11 Is Here Again.
- 2008: Laughing While Crying, The Prodigal Bumpe Returns, and 9/14/01
- 2009: Three Old Posts and a Little Story
- 2010: Thoughts on 9/11: The Devil Is in the Details
- 2011: “I Thought Everybody Else Was Lost,” 10 Years Later: “Essential Acts of Witness,” and 10 Years Later: The Weak Horse.
- 2012: Links to my previous posts, and a photo.
- 2013: The same links to previous posts and the photo shared in 2012.
- 2014: September 11: The Thirteenth Anniversary
- 2015: Fourteen Years, and Marcy Borders
- 2016: 15 Years After 9/11: The Story of Rick Rescorla
- 2017: “We Go Higher”
It’s supposed to be cloudy with some showers in New York today, which I welcome. A particular hue of cloudless blue sky, combined with exactly the right temperature, tends to remind me of the smell of smoke — so strong that you could taste it — that hung in the air for weeks after the towers collapsed. On the most beautiful days, I’ll suddenly feel like I have a mouth full of ashes. Let it rain.
Every year, I remember when the news of the first plane crossed the wires. The panicked calls on the hotline with NY. Everybody being evacuated and the hotline going dead, we across the ocean still bewildered and wondering just what was happening. Not knowing what the world was coming to. When the offices were finally restored, every detail the same as before, it was so comforting to see that big fossil (of an ammonite?) in the marble in front of the elevator doors. But while the décor might have looked the same as before, the world was anything but.
And I was getting guidance as to what was happening from overseas via Blackberry.