The Fabric of the World
Tuesday, September 11th, 2018
I flew from Boston to Salonika for a conference in early October 2001 (one of the very first international flights allowed), feeling dazed and numb but determined to do my part in re-weaving the fabric of the world. Manhattan had been briefly home, my first glimpse of the US…and in its messy, raucous, kaleidoscopic vim and vigor, the incarnation of some of the best aspects of my adopted culture. The harnessing of this wound to cynical powermongering was a second tragedy that’s still affecting the world today and has led to many of the travesties we’ve endured ever since.
Spirits above and behind me,
Faces gone black, eyes burnin’ bright,
May their precious blood bind me,
Lord, as I stand before your fiery light.
— Bruce Springsteen, The Rising
Image: One World Trade Center by Ryan Emond