Counting to 11
For the first time in 11 years, I made it most of the way to work before remembering. Baruch atah, Adonai…for life continuing on.
Counting to Ten
Ten years after 9/11, to the older but wiser, blogging Jewish Chicagoan that I’ve become, about the only thing that still resonates for me is the sense of loss. It’s still there. It always will be, but life goes on. And so do we, God willing.
Why I’m Here: My 9/11 Story Told for the StoryCorps September 11th Initiative (Audio)
On May 21st, I was blessed with the unexpected opportunity to be interviewed by the nonprofit oral-history project, StoryCorps. I visited their mobile recording studio, temporarily parked in Pilsen…and told my 9/11 story for the national September 11th Initiative. From StoryCorps, here is my recorded remembrance of the day that changed my life and, ultimately, brought me to Chicago.
“On 9/11 I Lost New York” 2008 Edition
Today, with the world again awash in retrospect, I usually prefer to be blogging about about courtesy, or kittens, or one of any number of safer, happier, topics. Seven years on and I had originally thought not to mark the occasion again. At some point, we just have to emotionally let go inside, or we destroy ourselves. In the end, while I feel no need to make a pilgrimage to a dusty construction site in Lower Manhattan, I still feel a need for words.
I Remember, 2008
You have better things to do today than surf through lunch on the Internet on the anniversary of 9/11. There are important people in your life and you know you’ve been taking them for granted. Yes, I’m talking to you. Now get off the Internet, pick up the phone, and tell them so: husbands; wives; life partners; children; brothers; sisters; best friends. Every one of them. No, I’m not kidding.