I live in Manhattan and I was here that crisp ,cool, blue-sky day.

The most wonderful thing that happened right after that horrific tragedy was this:

For a metaphorical 5 minutes...I WOULDN"T TRADE BEING HERE WITH ANYONE. It gives me goosebumps to recall it.

For a METAPHORICAL 5 MINUTES...NOTHING MATTERED in this HUB OF COMMERCE...
Race didn't matter...the *bottom line* didn't matter...religion, age gender...none of it mattered. The ONLY thing that mattered was that EVERYONE, from the top of huge corporations to the basic hard-working sanitary engineer, was BOUND AND KINDRED AND WANTED TO HELP each other!!! No screaming taxi drivers no angry people in lines at stores...

It was the most beautiful thing I have EVER experienced. THIS, then, is the memory I like to share with people and some are shocked that my first memory is a BEAUTIFUL & HUMAN one...but ...well...there you are.


Of course PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE...it didn't take long at all for all that to pop like a magic bubble. Back to angry, screaming, money-grubbing racial business as usual...BUT...

And I cling to this *but*...it showed me what is INSIDE EACH PERSON and can be TRIGGERED IN A NON-THINKING, KNEE-JERK response.

Hell...sometimes it is THINKING that gets us into trouble.

:-)
Thanks for listening.I'm going to try and look for that thing inside me and trot it out every now and again (WITHOUT tragedy striking first)!
Ve.