The Sound of Silence
Fine gray dust hung eerily in the air. Dust from burned papers, computers, clothing, airplanes...and people. There was a powerful silence, as if Nature were holding a Mass. When the city finally started to speak, it was still silent in our hearts. How would we go about clearing away the blood and dust from the eyes and noses of an entire country of people? How could we? So much loss. I couldn’t get the image of the man falling from the top of the building out of my mind for days. He had time to make a choice about how he wanted to die. He would rather jump than burn. He got up that morning, maybe he stopped for coffee at Starbucks, took the elevator to the top of one of the Twin Towers and then, jumped to his death. It took so long for him to fall that he had time to understand. I wonder if all he heard as he fell, was silence. So much death. In the days that followed firefighters, police men and women, ambulance crews, so many volunteers and even dogs worked to preserve th