Personally Speaking

A few nights ago, our family had dinner in a local pizzeria. This particular place chooses to flaunt its New York City roots in every possible way. From the way the menu is written, to the name of the establishment, to the manner in which the dining room is decorated, it is impossible to not realize the owners hail from New York City.

As the four of us sat there waiting for our meal, Aiden kept pointing out the different photographs he recognized.Central Park, the Empire State Building, the Manhattan skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge. One by one, he named them and told of his experiences at these locations, or where it was he had otherwise come to learn about them. Above the cash register hung a huge banner depicting the Twin Towers, pre-2001. Nervously, and holding back a trembling voice, I asked Aiden if he knew about them. He said no. I really didn't know what to say next. Of course he didn't know about these buildings, their place in the world, or their significance to our family. Was I now supposed to explain some portion or all of it to him? The subject somehow changed and I was content to have it do so.

At some point I'm sure he will have occasion to ask a question or two about this subject. When he does, I will  tell him how I feel and what his family experienced eleven years ago. That's how I think this subject should be shared and talked about. From father to son, from friend to friend, in personal terms. How it made you feel, what you remember doing, how it has impacted your life for better for worse. Making 9/11 a political chess piece or a sound byte on the news is not productive at all. I look forward to the day I can tell my boys all about it. I look forward to telling them how their mom gave everything in her soul for months atop a smoking, stinking pile of filth, metal and remains. I look forward to telling them how this has come to shape our family and how we live life.
I look forward to keeping it a very personal experience for them. Something they can call their own and make sense of for themselves.

In the days following 9/11, my dad spent his time working downtown restoring the communications infrastructure of the area. Last year I came to find out he had taken a few photos. A veteran New Yorker, there isn't much my dad has not experienced in a lifetime spent on the streets of Manhattan. From the depths of hell that was the Lower East Side, to being mugged on 125th street, even to being electrocuted on the street so badly his shirt bore the burn marks, it would be pretty tough to surprise him. So, with all this street credit to his name, what caught his eye enough to make him stop and take notice.......                                                      

This is Trinity Church. Located around the block from the World Trade Center.

Two things come to mind for me when I look at this picture:
1.The proximity to the earth it was taken from. My dad is about 6ft 2 inches tall. He must have gotten down on his knees in the wretch that covered almost every street for miles and days to take this picture.

2. I wonder what his intended subject was. Was it the flag on the stone? Was it the layers of ash and debris? Was it the trees and the smoke in the distance? Maybe it was the peace that belongs to Trinity Church that somehow remained intact through those hellish months of 2001.

Becoming instantly interested in the photos he took, I realized I had seen this particular image before. Ten years later, not knowing dad had stopped to photograph Trinity Church, I took the photos below at the same location.

The way I see it, his picture and the ones I took 10 years later are quite similar. This is what I hope to make 9/11 for my boys. Personal. Father to son.