Journeys of the Questress - WTC
The Survivors Rise Up
Home
The Way it Was - 1
The Way it Was - 2
Sept 19 - When Tomorrow Never Comes
Sept 27 - Oral Interpretation
Oct 5 - A Mile of Tears - Part 1
Oct 5 - A Mile of Tears - Part 2
Oct 5 - A Mile of Tears - Part 3
Oct 11 - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Oct 28 - Each Day I Search the Rubble
Nov 12 - When Spires Fall
Nov 19 - 911 The Rape of America
Dec 14 - Just A Thought
Dec 18 - A Sense of Place
Feb 2 - Final Pass to the End Zone
March 3 - Sitting on the Edge
March 14- Do You Still Remember
March 20 - Virtual Walk-Through
March 25 - When Will It End - Part 1
March 25 - When Will It End - Part 2
April 1 - Towers of Light
May 14 - View From Above
May 30 - Tunnel At the End of the Light
May 31 - Seventeen Hundred
Aug 9 - From the Margins Erased
Aug 30 - The Train Doesn't Stop There Anymore
Sept 9 - Ceremonies of Light and Dark
Sept 10 - Just An Anniversary
Sept 12 - September Holds Great Promise
Literary Reflections
Rebirth and Resurrection
The Winter Garden Springs To Life
The Winter Garden Springs To Life - con't
Underpass to the Past
Rebuilding Ground Zero
Under Hallowed Ground
Borders
Yahrzeit
What Will Fill the Void?
I Submit a Design
Footprints in the Dust
My Memorial Design Submission
My Memorial Design - Drawings
New Path Train Station
Path Station Tour
May We Never Forget
That Which Surives
War Without End
4th Anniversary
Footprints in the Dust
Void
I Miss 9/11
Time Comes Between Us
A Thousand Cranes
Fear Factor
Love Letters On The Wall
Empty Chairs
Sitting on the Edge of Forever
Walking the Perimeter of Emptiness
A Counting of Days
For Friends Absent But Not Forgotten
Stigmata
The Memory Keeper's Promise
Unbreak My Heart
Standing On The Edge Of Forever
Both Sides Now
A Memory In Time
The Gravity of Loss
The Survivors Rise Up
Flowers Will Bloom
The Fire Within Us
The Sentinel
Stronger Than The Storm
Between the Candle and the Stars
Ghosts
A Journey Through Remembrance
Canticle of Remembrance
Beyond the Crucible of Chaos
Journey Through Remembrance project
What See We Now
Forever In Our Hearts
Keeping the Flame Alive
The Rebuilding of Ground Zero continues
Does Anyone Care Anymore?
Where Is Our Story Teller of Pain
At Memory's Edge
Dust Thou Art and to Dust Thou Shalt Return
7x7x70
Heroes Never Die
The Flame Inside Our Hearts
The Year of the Heroes of 9/11
Déjà Vu
Remembering 9/11 in the year of COVID-19
Coronavirus Decimates Ailing Sept. 11 Responders
Touching From a Distance
That Which Survives 20 years later
2021 - 20 years later
Memories of Terror Return
Putin's Name Covered Over On Teardrop Memorial
The 9/11 Tribute Museum Closes
When Memories Fade Away
St. Nicholas at Ground Z is rebuilt
The Blue Wall of the Unidentified Victims
When Time Calls Your Name
When Art Gets It All Wrong

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The Survivors Rise Up
The Memorial is finally open. By all accounts most of the visitors are satisfied with its design. In 2003 after the 8 finalists were chosen, I wrote on this website (Footprints in the Dust) “Numerous comments by reporters and on website forums deplore the sterility, and the lack of incorporation of actual elements from Ground Zero”. I quoted Clay Risen’s lengthy report “ ‘They are little more than theme parks of emotion—in this corner, relive that oceanic sense of loss you felt that morning; over there, cry over the sheer number of the dead.’ ” Indeed one could say that is exactly a description of this memorial. But thoughts and wishes of thousands of people have a way of influencing things beyond what I or Risen could have imagined.
 
The Survivor Tree

 
On the plaza of this Memorial are 400 trees. They came from New Jersey, Washington DC, and Shanksville Pennsylvania. Among them stands a lone pear tree that had been mangled, covered over with dust in the pit but was rescued and now was a healthy flourishing tree. Thanks to Ron Vega, Director of Construction for the Memorial, who had worked the pile and had seen this tree in its decrepit state, saw it as a symbol of all that survived that terrible day. He felt that the “Survivor Tree”, as it was called, could be that something tangible from Ground Zero that the memorial needed. Within the scope of the design, he found his touchstone. It now has a prominent place to shade visitors and to remind them that survival and rebirth through the worse of times is possible. He listened to his inner voice.
 

Rendering of Trident's position in Museum entryway
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New York magazine, Sept 2011

The Tridents Return
 
The Museum produces another example of this strange effect. The curators working with the designers found a way to not just include a relic from Ground Zero but to give it a prominent place where all could view it from Memorial level. From the North Tower, two “tridents”, the lower part of a Tower’s façade, are housed on the main level, the entryway to the Museum. The Museum’s transparent glass outer shell lets a passerby see in and view them. When you enter, you will be able to come up close and perhaps even touch them!
 
In my posting in 2003 I wrote “The beams and other objects surviving Ground Zero have become our 21st century relics. They hark back to the Catholic Church’s tradition of venerating relics of their saints… the faithful (were) allowed to touch it. A way for the faithful to connect with that saint and maybe even experience a healing.” Yes experience “a healing.” The names and waterfalls serve their purpose, but what better way to heal than to touch that which actually went through the hell of 9/11. A small flourishing pear tree and 2 gigantic steal beams, can possibly do just that!

View of North Tower Tridents
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My 1993 photograph