Emily, thank you for writing this. New York is the city of my youth. I grew up in NJ but went into NYC almost every weekend when I was old enough to do so. All of my cousins used to work at the WTC. New York is in my soul, even though I live far far away these days, I still love NYC so much. Everytime I am there, I just want to walk walk walk around the whole entire city & soak it in! So my heart grieves to hear these stories, yet I am so touched by the wonderful stories that have come out of all this horror. My husband Jeff also has strong ties to NYC. He worked there for many years. We have talked about how much we want to visit & spend our tourist dollars to help out. So next vacation, this may be where we spend it.... >>i'd like to contribute more now -- because this community has been so important to me in the past two weeks. even more so than the past two years i've been a JMDL member! i live in new york city, in brooklyn. we live about ten blocks from where i was born, in fact. "brooklyn born"-- such a cry of pride for me. from my apartment to where the world trade center stood is about a mile and a half. i used to see it out my window. even now, when i look over that view, i keep thinking to myself that it must be cloudy or something, that's why it's not there. that's not why it's not there. i heard and felt the explosions on 9/11 and lived for three hours in total fear of the thick smoke that enveloped my block quickly. and the ash that settled over the cars on the street, and the papers that blew down like a snowstorm, each charred on the edges. they whipped through the street and then were gone -- like some kind of hallucinatory plague. but that's not what i wanted to write about. nor is this: when the wind changes, i can still smell the burning. other new yorkers, you know that smell i mean, right? it is a wonder we walk around with that smell in the air-- my city, still smoldering. nor is this of interest: that i can't sleep through the night, that my stomach is all out of wack and clenched through most of the day, that subway rides are a mental test like none i've experienced. that each sound makes me jump. me, a new yorker! someone who loves the jangle and crash and screech of sounds in this messy and gorgeous city. it's such a different city now. one thing i DID want to write about: last week one night courtney and i walked over to a local bar because we'd seen a poster that said all its proceeds would go to firemen and women, police officers, and the families who lost them. when we saw the bar, it had literally overflowed onto the street, hundreds of people, neighbors, all ages, even kids who were drinking sodas -- all out to spend money for this cause. i saw people buy one drink and give $20 -- every single dollar going into a huge jar for the fund. the crazed bartenders REFUSED TO TAKE TIPS, although we tried, saying they wanted to donate their time. (as an exbartender myself, this made a major impression!) but here's the best part: our firefighters and police officers were there. some in uniform, some out (some even on duty who got coffee and sat in their cars to watch). they were just overcome by seeing this show of support. they were treated like heroes! they were laughing, crying sometimes, getting slapped on the back. they had their drinks passed to them by many, many grateful people who kept saying thank you to them. it was like a block party, but with the biggest heart you can imagine. it was like magic. there was talk of war, yeah, but there was mainly just love in the air. and the smell of spilled beer. and laughter. and music from the jukebox. as we walked out, we said goodnight to officers and firefighters, who smiled and raised their glasses to us. around the corner was a firetruck, with a firefighter in uniform standing next to it. we walked right up to him and i told him that we came out that night to support him and his coworkers and that i was proud to get a chance to say thank you in person. thank you for HIS work. for doing HIS job in my city. he nodded, and smiled, and said thank you back to us. so then i walked home, through one of those early fall brooklyn nights, holding the hand of the person i'm going to marry right here in brooklyn in less than a month -- and things were, just for one moment, OK. i just thought i'd try to frame a small sense of some NYC perspective for those who are wondering what it is like here. and can i send something out also? a special "hello" and "hang in there" and "i'm thinking about you" to the other new yorkers. it's really hard here right now--but there is beauty, sometimes, in all the hardship--and it can make the unendurable endurable (sometimes). - --emily<<
