Ambiance

I Don’t Want To

September 11, 2009 at 12:32 pm (By Amba)

. . . write, talk, think, or watch TV about September 11, 2001.

Having been there, it’s in me like a permanent piece of shrapnel.  I startle when someone matter-of-factly states today’s date.

I still turn on the news every morning with a subliminal apprehension that something horrific has happened to New York City.

There were concentric circles of trauma on that day and I was pretty far from the bull’s-eye (though not as far, living below 14th street, as someone who lived up in the 90s).  Unlike those who lost someone that day, on the one hand, and those for whom it was only a media event, on the other — still trying to make it real to themselves — I have the luxury of not writing, talking, thinking, or watching today, any more than this.