(no subject)

[threeplusfire]

There is an article in the NY Times today about the WTC, and how some firefighters made it much further up in the south tower than anyone knew.

A few times so far, some of the Germans and others have asked me about September 11th. It is hard, to find words. I am at a loss as to why I am still so inarticulate about this moment. When I was a kid, my mom would tell me about the afternoon when they learned about Kennedy's death, about her rage and fighting with her father about Kent State, and I always wanted to have some moment that would connect me to everyone else like that. Here is is, and I do not know what to say. It must seem morbid, to have wanted to experience something like that, but I was a lonely child. I wanted so much to belong to something.

I read these articles, and I still cry. Because it is awe inspiring and terrible, the madness and the bravery in human hearts.

Comments

[neflhim.livejournal.com]

I was planning a memorial bit in my Journal on the 11th. Something like a where were you? piece.

I mean to have it written well in advance, to allow for polishing. And to allow time to actually write it. This is emotional in a way I refuse to believe that Kennedy could possibly have been. My uncle saw Oswald get shot on live TV. 9/11/01 makes that look like Barney.

That rambled a bit longer than intended...

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I think language and literature must have been born from this relentless human desire to express the inexpressible. I mean, what can I say about watching the biggest building I have ever stood under in my life crumble into flame and dust?

[galebird.livejournal.com]

It's terribly hard to express to people who weren't stateside when it happened what 9/11 really felt like.

I wasn't in New York, but I was too close to it for comfort. Two of those planes came from Boston- I watch similar flights taking similar routes take off and land daily during my commute. It's almost a year late but the sound of planes still makes me flinch sometimes, especially if they're flying a bit lower than usual.

There truly aren't enough words in the human language to express it. It's something you have to see and feel. True, we all saw it on TV, and we've all seen the photos and other images of NYC, DC and Pennsylvania since... but until you drive by that ever familiar NYC skyline and see the quite blatant and painful hole where those towers once stood, it's hard to make it real. :-(

I stood beside those buildings when I was 14 years old and marvelled at their grandeur. I'd never seen something that big in my life. They more than impressed me, and to see them fall was devastating... all the more so for knowing the lives that they took down with them.

If they truly want to know what 9/11 felt like for an American, have them take everything they've ever known-- the safety of their homes, the security of their country, the stability of the world around them.. and in one moment, have it destroyed. It feels like war. It feels like innocence lost. It feels like the heartbreak in the eyes of a young child who now has to learn what death is because their mom and/or dad will never come home from work again. It's the amazing capacity of the human spirit to for one moment lay aside all strife and come together to gather around their wounded neighbors. And it was flags waving and candles burning in every city and town from Boston to New York, Chicago to LA, New Orleans to Seattle. It was a unity we rarely actually see, though we know it to exist.

That is pretty much what 9/11 felt like from my point of view, verbose at it may be.

This anniversary is going to be hard. :-(

[redbird]

You can say "I'm sorry, I can't talk about it". There's no shame in that, and plenty of other places they can learn how people felt, and feel.

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I would like to talk about it. I just wish I could find the words. So much of my life seems to be a struggle for finding the right words in a given moment.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

It is very interesting to explain the previous American ideal, that terrorism on a massive and violent scale just didn't happen in America. I've met people who come from ravaged countries, in which politics takes a very direct and bloody turn. They find it interesting that so many Americans could not conceive of such a thing, even though it happens all around the world.

I think we have been very sheltered at home. If we learn nothing else from this, we should realize that America is very much a part of the world, and we are not immune to the troubles of it.