Down the island I went to meet friends for lunch at a favorite place: Veselka.
My view for awhile.
I was rewarded with cold borscht. That’s chopped dill.
Ruben.
The staff wear shirt with festive beets!
Then it’s Uber time to the tip of the island.
The 9/11 Museum … I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleased with what I found. A lot of thought went into the design.
One of the first things you encounter is what everything looked like just before it happened.
A bit of the iron structure into which one of the airplanes slammed.
The quote from Virgil is: Nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo. I am not sure that the people who chose that did a lot of research.
Where that twisted iron was.
And the other.
A relic of the attack.
On a less solemn note, after the visit to the museum and memorial, we went uptown and parked ourselves in a “bar” on Bryant Park (yes, Romeo and Juliet were playing again and, yes, Mercutio was still screechy).
Which drink is mine? And what is it? Keep in mind that it was 90+F° and really humid.
Supper begins.
It was a long, good, but, in the main, solemn day.
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Now that the museum has been open for a while, I hope to be able to visit during one of my next trips to the City.
I’ve heard some good things about it. Some understandable concerns, too, from the perspective of the families of those killed there.
“Don’t know what to expect” is about the best way to put it. Back in the day, I worked in and around those buildings on occasion. I’ve viewed the site from a couple of blocks away a few weeks after, and from the edges and the pedestrian bridge later in cleanup and the beginning of reconstruction… I really don’t know how it will hit me when I actually get there.
You must have a cast iron stomach, Fr. Z. Reubens to Chinese, etc. Aren’t you ever afraid all those cultures may not get along?
The photo of the buildings just before. I remember vividly the blue of that beautiful September day. It was just a lovely morning, the last day you would expect evil to visit on that scale.
“What drink is mine?”
and
“What is it?”
Answer:
All 3 of them
and
A “shirley temple” HaHa
or
a “cuba libre” to “celebrate” diplomatic relations
Visiting the museum is one of the more somber events of a trip to the city. Even more so when/if you look up the name(s) of people you know to find where their names are enscribed on the panels surrounding the pools.
Kathleen10: 9/11 started off as one of those perfect late summer days that are all too rare in the northeast…cerulian blue sky…nice temps…gentle breeze. I remember thinking it would be beautiful day to go down to the airport and take my plane out for a quick flight around the area before driving into work. As it turned out…the second plane passed right overhead of Princeton Airport on its way to its destruction at a low altitude (for that sector); the airport manager remembers thinking that it was strange that a commercial jet was apparently that low.
And by denying the reality of the system which produces people who believe that their salvation comes at the point of them killing as many people as possible while they themselves commit suicide will be our own downfall. We’re taught to embrace life…they’re taught to desire death.
Those black holes where the towers once stood are at the same time calming…and a reminder of the depths to which Hell can engulf us.
For some reason, I youtubed the ATC tapes from 9-11, one with a graphic recreating flight 175. The sheer evil is unfathomable. Reminds me of a remark by the Newtown shooter, “Just because I don’t understand it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.” Clueless secularity meeting big time evil, but his response is correct. The world is bigger than we will ever know in this life, except by Faith.
that should be, “the Newtown shooter’s father…”
St. Ambrose referenced the same bit of the Aeneid, Book 9, in “De obitu Valentiani consolatio”:
“Blessed both, if my prayers shall be influential,
No day shall pass you in silence,
No prayer of mine shall cross you unhonored,
No night shall run by with some appeal of my petitions not given;
I will repeat often all oblations for you.”
“Beati ambo, si quid meae orationes valebunt,
Nulla dies vos silentio praeteribit,
Nulla inhoratos vos mea transibit oratio,
nulla nox non donatos aliqua precum mearum
contestione transcurret, omnibus vos oblationibus frequentabo.”
It occurs to me now that the Virgil quote could work in context. Nisus was out of danger, but went back into danger in order to save his friend Euryalus; and so they died together as friends. Some of the implications of their relationship through the rest of the story are less savory, but the basic scene doesn’t need that to work.
One could easily take this as a reference to all the people who could have gotten out safely, but ended up dying with others whom they went back to help; and to the firefighters, police, etc. who lost their lives after deliberately going into danger to help others. One thinks particularly of Rick Rescorla; but there were some who apparently died at the side of disabled or slow friends and co-workers whom they were helping.
Of course, it’s also possible that it was chosen on purpose to be a little unsavory, but ignorance of the classics or innocence in their interpretation is more likely than malice. And if St. Ambrose didn’t think it was a creepy reference in his eulogy for an emperor, I would think it would be okay for us.
Brian Boyle wrote: ” And by denying the reality of the system which produces people who believe that their salvation comes at the point of them killing as many people as possible while they themselves commit suicide will be our own downfall. We’re taught to embrace life…they’re taught to desire death.”
Amen! Our downfall will is not acknowledging who and why we fight. Mr. Boyle I believe our crack news media and government officials are still looking for a MOTIVE of Mohammed the Chattanooga shooter. Try Sura 9 of the Quran!