10 Years

The new issue of New York Magazine arrived in my mailbox a few days ago, and I have spent time reading it each day since. It is a haunting and beautiful double issue devoted to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I know it 's cliche to say "I can't believe it's been 10 years," but I'm guessing that's how many of us feel (particularly those of us whose own lives changed dramatically during the past decade, especially if we have become parents). As a New Yorker who has now lived in Manhattan for 17 years, New York Magazine's keen attention to the details of that day resonate with me. There will always be something chilling about the details of that day that only we New Yorkers experienced...such as how the sky started out so clear and blue with just a hint of crisp fall air on its way (to this day, NYC friends and I will sometimes note, as we did just yesterday, that the weather "feels like 9/11"). Or the horrible, never-to-be-forgotten smell of burnt fuel and flesh that wafted uptown on Wednesday, 9/12. My then-boyfriend (now ex-husband) and I put wet washcloths over our faces when we went outside because the stench was so unbearable. I had just gotten off the phone with a friend downtown; one of the plane's wheels had landed outside their building's front door. The magazine's "Encyclopedia of 9/11," an A-to-Z compilation of facts and anecdotes that maybe you never knew, or might never forget, is an excellent read. As the anniversary is just one week away, I encourage you to read the issue online, or to pick up a copy. I'm saving mine, right next to the magazines and newspapers I gently put on a shelf ten years ago. They have yellowed over the past decade, but each detail remains as vivid.

p.s. Ten years ago this October, I was quoted in a New York Times article about how older (and younger) generations viewed the tragedy, still so fresh in our minds. See page 4 of the 5-page article.