It was not a day just like today. Today in Troy, it is overcast with a hint of rain, but eight years ago in New York City, it was one of those perfect early fall days. The sky was so blue and clear and the air so crisp, except that by the early afternoon in Astoria, Queens, there was a tinge of metal and ash in the air.
I have been so pained these past few days and weeks by the vitriol of public discourse. The rage, the lies, the hatred emanating from my fellow citizens overwhelms me. Yesterday, I started to wonder if it were not all still the hangover from 9-11. Did we abandon our grief too early for shopping and yellow ribbons and war preparations? Has it festered for eight years to return in this sickening morass, this spectacle of ignorance and inhumanity?
Remember September 12th? We were all going to take care of each other, remember?
My heart is so heavy right now and grief overwhelms me. Not just for that day but for what we have become as a nation since.
September 11, 2009 at 10:27 am
Wow. Beautifully said. Especially the part about Sept. 12th. We all vowed to love, to forgive, to move on and look out for each other. Instead, our nation has become even more divided. It’s heartbreaking.
September 11, 2009 at 1:35 pm
thank you! for putting all my thoughts into words … it’s so hard to imagine that the country i grew up in seems so much more divided than ever .. will it end?
September 11, 2009 at 4:32 pm
it is a strange thing, this. i remember crying every day at work for a week. then for weeks afterwards at home after work. didn’t think anything would ever get better. but it did. sort of. and not really, right?
sigh. on a far, far lighter note, i want to say that the ditty bag you don’t like, the one with the embroidery on the bottom is my fave of all. perception is everything.
love you.
September 14, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Thank you, Kate, Jovita, and Ms. J., for your replies. It means a lot to know that other people are feeling similarly.
And funnily enough, J., when I posted the ditty bag pics on flickr, “mary quant” was the only one to get a reply. Beauty is in the eye, fo’ shizzle.
October 12, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I just stumbled on your blog from your sewing machine horror story and have read some of your earlier entries. This one was so true! I remembered saying that week that we “are now a kinder and gentler nation”. How sad that that didn’t last very long!
p.s. I live only about 45 minutes from Albany, so we’re not that far apart, I guess.
October 12, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Hi Laura — what a small world! Yes, it’s been a sad decline in our national spirit. I am trying to focus on those who are doing good in the world and to avoid the cynics at all costs.