Ten Years...



littlesam @ the WTC

 My father took this picture on a trip to NYC more than a decade ago.  I always thought it was a cool picture but, now, it's chilling to think about how important it's become in my father's photo albums because of the 9/11 Attacks.  It makes me think of how temporary life can be.  I don't just mean the lives of individuals, though none of us are guaranteed tomorrow, but the transience of everything around us. 

My family typically vacations on Hatteras Island in North Carolina the week after Labor Day, in the off season.  We have a routine, places we visit, and restaurants we know.  This year, we had to move a little bit to the north and rent a place on Bodie Island because of the most recent hurricane.  (Irene opened up a new inlet on Hatteras Island and destroyed the highway in about four places.)  The photos of the aftermath are sad.  Our familiar places are boarded up and the residents are completely cut-off from the mainland.  I am not trying to compare this to the World Trade Center or even New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  The residents of the Outer Banks will certainly feel the effects of Hurricane Irene for a while, but there is no comparison in terms of loss of life and devastation.  My point is that we build these lives and there is nothing permanent about them.

It brings me back to my favorite quote in A Passage to India:

It matters so little to the majority of living creatures what the minority, that calls itself human, desires or decides. Most of the inhabitants of India do not mind how India is governed. Nor are the lower animals of England concerned about England, but in the tropics the indifference is more prominent, the inarticulate world is closer at hand and readier to resume control as soon as men are tired. ~ A Passage to India, E.M. Forester.

I've also been watching Life After People on the History Channel, so I am sure that is influencing a lot of this entry.  The one I've recently seen was about the crumbling of buildings in cities without human maintenance.  They looked specifically at the abandoned buildings in Detroit and how they are weathering the elements without constant upkeep.  It was both interesting and frightening to watch how much effort goes into maintaining the ordered structure of our lives.  We take so many things for granted in this society, globally and nationally.

We are scrambling around trying to create meaning and order out of chaos and, for the most part, we do a very good job of it.  From our scientific hierarchy of biological classifications to sort and understand the organisms around us to Standard & Poor's financial rating system to help us understand if a country can pay off its debts to the Spectral Classification of Stars to Cosmo's "What Kind of Guy Are You Dating?" Quiz.  We want everything to fit in neat little boxes.  While these classifications and rating systems help us to digest information quickly, aide in a higher retention of knowledge, or help us make decisions about our lives, they also lull us into a false sense of security. 

What I learned on September 11, 2001 was that life isn't predictable.  There are some things you just can't manage or control no matter how much you may try.  Sometimes your family is out of touch in a dangerous area and you just have to wait for news.  Sometimes terrible things happen to very good people and there is no way to justify it.  I also learned that it's not always a question of right and wrong.  Which brings me to my other favorite quote:

How I envy the youg. For them everything is so clear. Things seem to be either one way or another. It is only with a little age that you begin to see life as a series of compromises. But even in compromising one must draw a line. ~Swing Kids (1993)

I am going to wrap up this entry because I can tell that I've touched on a lot of things but haven't really gone in depth with any them.  My brain is thinking much faster than I can type and I am afraid I will stop making sense.