Malibu morning picture of the day - Thursday, 9/11 of 2014

Good afternoon to you.

Today's picture:

Facing south, taken at 9:11 AM

On my lunch hour I went down to the flag display to spend some time there thinking about 9/11 and what it has meant to live in this country since.

9/11 occurred the same year that my then wife and I agreed to divorce. That coincidence, neatly dividing the time that I had been a married family man from the time that I was a single parent, has put something of a hazy patina on my early adulthood, and colored my middle-age in a time of uncertainty, paranoia, and public suspicion, later exacerbated by a failing economy.

In fact, because of the personal tumult I was in at the time, I did not find out what was happening that day in NYC until I got to work and somebody told me. I had stopped listening to news and restricted my audio input to escapist books on tape or lectures on myths. The PR office had a TV on our floor, so everybody just went in there and watched the day unfold until we were told to go home. Everything else is pretty much a blur.

So, as bad as I felt and as sorry as I wanted to feel for myself at that time, circumstances around me pretty much yelled, "At least you're vertical." I appreciate that we can learn to persevere and endure from the hardships of others. It took me 11 minutes to walk the length of one side the flag display; while doing so I imagined standing at each pole, the ghost of a soul lost that day. The installation is useful in that way in that it gives you a relate-able metric as to how many people died in that short time.

However you spend this day, I hope you give its meaning to you some thought.

Love,
Pops