The Date Draws Near

posted by Momo Fali on September 9, 2011

I sat down at my keyboard this morning ready to type a lighthearted post. I am pressed for time (what else is new?) and looked down at the clock on my monitor to note it and keep myself to a strict 20 minute limit. Then I saw the date.

9/9/2011

And, I completely erased what I had started.

There is nothing lighthearted about being two days away from the 10th anniversary of the attacks. It is a date, 10 years old, that feels like yesterday; the images so clear that I am sure a decade could not have possibly passed.

Seeing the calendar takes me away from this still, quiet room. My mind, instantly, sees the Trade Center with smoke billowing from the sides. It sees faces looking up in terror, thousands of people walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and it imagines what it was like to be on one of those planes.

I can’t see a clear blue sky without thinking of that day. I can’t hear planes flying overhead and think nothing of it. That day changed every bit of normal that I ever felt.

I think about these people.

I wonder how to explain to my children that there are people who are, inexplicably, evil, or why they have had three cousins fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of our nephews is over there now. He was the ring bearer in my wedding 14 years ago; young enough to be called a kid…though, undoubtedly, now a man.

I see lives lost, lives changed and I see the world in an entirely different light. A light dimmed by my own skepticism and worry.

Next week, I will come back to this new normal and write again without consideration of the date. I will find humor in the mundane and laughter in the everyday.

But, I will never, ever forget.

    Comments

  • Angi


    I am feeling the same way this morning. I remember how amazing and unified the country was after that. The political environment today shatters me when I think of how many have already forgotten that we are one America, that has been brought to our knees by evil and found a way to band together.

  • Ann


    I feel the same way. In years past I have chosen not to post at all, and go on with yet another humor post days later.

    I couldn’t do that this year, and realize how important it felt to me not to.

  • lceel


    It was always just a number. Seeing all those faces ….

  • Patty @ A Day in My NYC


    I know exactly how you feel. This whole week I’ve been so aware of how much the hurt lingers.

    Sending you lots of love & hugs.

  • Tessica


    That day has been heavy heavy heavy on my mind and working with the Pentagon in site of my office window it is a constant reminder. I choose to do the opposite of you but to instead post on Sunday, when I don’t usually.
    But that doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy heavy heavy.
    And you are so right that it changed it all.

  • MaryD


    It could never stop being incomprehensible.

  • meleah rebeccah


    I am having the same feelings as you. My heart is heavy and aches. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years. And I still weep for those who lost their lives.

  • Shea


    I will never forget that tragic day. Hearing the news, seeing the images, and feeling the shock. That is something that I will carry inside of me for the rest of my life.

  • KINGOFNEWYORKHACKS


    It is our duty to never forget…changed the world…I pass that picture often in my travels…evokes emotions every time…

  • AlisonH


    My cousin David watched the first tower burn, the second one get hit, and with countless others walked the very long walk home. Shopkeepers stayed in their shops to be able to hand bottles of water to their fellow man, so many with so far to go. They risked staying so that others could make the journey they had to make.

  • Katie @ NYCitified


    So, so sad. At the time, I was a lighthearted college student in Pittsburgh….now I’m an older and wiser NYer, planning my wedding to an NYPD officer. I can’t believe how different my life is now, but I’m so happy that I decided to put my fears aside and come to NY in May 2002!

  • Vicki


    Reading older posts Diane. I loved this one.