Still Standing

Spirits were restless today. The sky was clear , but whipped with gale-force winds. Our building creaked wildly all day long which, coupled with the barrage of crumbling WTC footage and personal interest stories about survivors and victims of September 11th, made for a day I could only characterize as creepy. It reminded me of the scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when Belloq opens the ark and the spirits within rush out towards Heaven (and Hell).

I fled work early and hopped on my bike to roll downtown. John and I spent the golden hour walking around Battery Park City where it seemed the world had gathered just to look, to remember, to marvel at the recovery.

Ground Zero, completely bathed in white light, is all but empty now. The Winter Garden is completely rebuilt. The makeshift electric cables are gone. The dust-strewn streets are clean. The sound of trucks and tractors has been replaced by the hum of satellite trucks and pedestrians passing on cell phones. “Yeah, I’m at Ground Zero,” they say. I think what they really mean is, “We’re still here. We’re still standing.”

And all of a sudden, it’s autumn. The temperature dropped 20 degrees over the course of the morning. The brown air has blown out to sea, leaving only clear blue. The humidity has dissipated.

Suddenly, summer’s gone.