The Way We Were
Ha! And here you thought I was going to post once and then vanish again for another month! Ha! O ye of little faith. (I thought so too, that’ll teach both of us then.)
Last year I didn’t post anything here on September 11th either; a few days later I blogged something called - 33 - and then let it slip from mind. I just read it again today. Without actually saying much about how I felt it draws pretty precisely how I feel, then and now. Most sadness tempers into strength, once it’s been bent over itself and hammered down for a year or two, and looking backward starts to feel more like a nod to a place I once was than a tether to a stone in the heart.
Don’t worry about those clanging noises you hear, just a little extra smelting for good measure.
This year I listened to the annual reading of the names of the dead, which for the first time didn’t feel healthy — maybe we’re over that particular inward catharsis at last. It put me to my annual 9/11 weep undisirregardless. I passed the rest of the day Not Doing My Taxes, which is a hobby of mine.
By night I strapped on the snowshoes, tied down the pith helmet, took a home reading with the sextant, and set out to try my camera hand at the Tribute in Light memorial. The shoot was pretty successful. It’s probably some of my most consistent work, and I’m pleased to find that I can now think of my photos as a body of work, rather than a bunch of snaps that happen to be lined up in a row. There are 23 images in the final photo set, which I recommend. Today one of the pictures was the featured shot in the Utata.Org photoblog, which I’ve occasionally written stuff in, and last week big ol’ love-to-hate-’em Gothamist, flagship of the -ist blog fleet, ran another, so I guess I’m famous and all.
Best random sentence I ran across today and had nothing to do with: The girl who ratted me out is still a vacuous tramp in my book. You tell ‘em, honey.
September 20th, 2005 at 20:16
That is a bee-yoo-tee-ful photo, Linus! Mine didn’t come out, but I was in Jersey, so what do you expect?
September 21st, 2005 at 18:20
Your shots are typically excellent-to-phenomenal, Linus. It’s always good to see you get props.
I haven’t written anything about Sept. 11 neither, at least, not for public consumption. I can appreciate the reading of the names as a catharsis all of itself, but it just feels voyeuristic to me. My thoughts about 9/11 aren’t included in theirs, and the two people whose names I’d wait for, well, I know better ways to remember them, even on that day.
You know.
September 21st, 2005 at 22:27
Hey Searchie! Glad to see you back and visiting after my extended blog hiatus - I need to go catch up on your doings these last weeks and months. Sorry to hear about the Jersey thing; but really, Brooklyn is much nicer. Thanks for the kind words.
And yours too, Tony. The first few times I found the names beautiful, in the way I find the lights beautiful - they are a sort of punctuated silence, a reminder and a recounting for a day that shouldn’t need editorializing. I guess I understand grieving in public as a healthy way to go. This year, though, I wondered if it wasn’t time to take it home.
September 22nd, 2005 at 15:22
Wow.
The lighting in the front. The tower lights in the back. And then the faded shadow of a person on the right. A spirit from Sept. 2001, perhaps? Gorgeous picture.