Midweek Mariner Munchies

Sailing past tragedy in Battery Park City 22 years after 9/11.

Throwing back to this past sunset-perfect Wednesday, when I met up with two friends/classmates/colleagues on the Westside at a boat on the Hudson for a most lovely catch-up.

Photos are unfiltered. The hues were just like that in real life. The city was all aglow.

As I waited for my friends to arrive, I watched the boat with trepidation as it rocked periodically. Learning from past outings at similar venues, my choice of juice and water only libations staved off any motion sickness, thankfully (better for my health, anyway). Not an issue for my one friend who I learned during our catch-up went to sailing camp over several summers in high school, and crewed boats during those years.

It happens that the pier was just north of where I might have finished out high school, had construction actually kept to schedule (but in the nation's largest school district, how realistic was that?).

My alma mater - in this location - became a staging ground for the recovery efforts 22 years ago. And then all of New York City, and the students who attended at the time, were called to resume normal life while the wreckage was still smoldering. That became their service to City and country.

Note the photo with the sailboat; in the background, over New Jersey, is a plane ... how low it appears in that perspective.

And as we dined and talked, we saw the test lighting of the Tribute in Light ahead of this Monday. The test lights were turned off at one point. But they were back on as we left, and as we walked to the subway, we all remembered where we were that day, freshly minted from law school - one of us having already started at our first firm; one of us abroad finishing out the post-Bar trip; one of us in the air in a plane over the Pacific and oblivious to that morning's events as they unfolded, until unexpectedly landing in Canada 6 hours later. 22 years, and we each remember it like it was yesterday. It is how trauma works, they say. 

That shaped our lives in so many ways - ripple effects. Knowing how arbitrary is the Grim Reaper, I had consciously endeavored to keep my work in balance with my outside life. But with the long recession and all the layoffs, the fear of unemployment was pervasive - I had tons of work, for which I was grateful, and I put my head down and did it like a good little worker bee. And set a horrible precedent - that I only managed to crawl out from under last year. This midweek meetup was one direct result of trying to recalibrate.

To sailing past the rough waters, but never losing the lessons of the seas.