Sept 11, 2006 – 9/11+5

This morning, five years to the minute after the airplanes hit the towers, I was asleep. Just as I was last year. As I write, I’m looking out on a classic foggy San Francisco morning. The radio’s off, and I’m not sure how to turn on my friend Rich’s television. And I don’t want to. …

Subject:  a pause, and no more than a pause, Sep 11 2003

To:   johnvoelcker@yahoo.com Subject:  a pause, and no more than a pause, Sep 11 This morning in Manhattan is very similar to that of two years ago. Perhaps the cloudless sky is not quite so bright a blue. Or perhaps our memory is so sharply etched that the day two years ago was the brighest, the bluest morning …

Subject:  enough, Sep 11 2002

To:   johnvoelcker@yahoo.com Subject:  enough, Sep 11 September 11 is not going to be a clear, bright, crisp autumn morning, as it was a year ago. Perhaps that would be too much poetic symmetry. Early this morning, the humidity is 100% and it’ll be intermittently cloudy  and windy today.   More than 2,000 memorial services are scheduled for …

Subj:   a wake & an awakening, Mar 11, 2002

From:   JVoelcker  The Jewish custom of sitting shiva after a death, similar in some ways to the Irish wake, provides for a designated 7-day period of mourning. There follow 30 days of  lesser mourning, and 11 months during which a mourner says Kaddish twice daily. These rituals also specify the end of mourning, when life …

Subj:   giving thanks, Dec 11 2001

Even in a city of unusual sights, shorts and t-shirts in early December are startling. The weather here has finally turned toward winter, with colder temperatures and rain. But last week was sunny and pleasant, with temperatures in the low 70s. Only the low angle of the sun gave away the month. Some flowering trees …