One Fine Tuesday Morning

One fine Tuesday morning I woke up tempted to "play hookey" from work.

I went anyway.

I followed my morning routine to the letter: rode a Jersey City bus to the PATH train station and headed for Manhattan. I then got breakfast before going upstairs - a ham and cheese croissant and a vanilla cappuccino, light and sweet.

I got in an empty elevator and pushed the 15th floor button.

Just before the door closed a nice looking woman got on and pressed 14. We smiled at each other and then ignored each other, honoring the Elevator Etiquette Act of 1937.

She got off on 14. The door closed and the elevator rose towards 15.

All of a sudden, there was an explosive wind tunnel in the elevator shaft!

The elevator was swinging from side to side and I thought, "That's weird - it's not bumping up against anything. The walls must be moving - THAT'S NOT GOOD!"

Everything in me screamed, "GET ME OFF THIS ELEVATOR!"

The elevator doors opened on 15. When I stepped out, I saw all 6 elevator doors moving from the wind in their shafts.

At that point, I had some serious concerns. Concerns like, "What the heck was going on?" and "How the $#@% am I supposed to clean up the dust from the sheet rock in the middle of the office?"

I could tell I was the first one in but I still looked around - I could have been wrong.

I wasn't.

I was wondering what to do when I heard footsteps in a nearby staircase and thought, 'That's a good idea!"

So I went into a staircase on the 15th floor of 1 World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 at about 8:50am.

The staircase was crowded and no one was moving; there were only 3 staircases servicing the entire 110 story building.

Of course, the builders couldn't have imagined what happened that day was even possible.

I still hadn't eaten my croissant and cappuccino so when I was instructed to go into the nearest re-entry floor, I sat on someone's desktop and annoyingly had my breakfast. As I was finishing, someone shouted, "Everything is OK - a plane hit the building."

We thought Cessna, not 747.

A few minutes later, another crash occurred and we knew it was time to get out.

It took another 40 minutes before I actually got to the street. As I was approaching Broadway and John Street I turned and then I saw....

The fires.

Until then, I didn't know the impact of what happened. Now I did.

The fires covered 10 flights or more and emitted a tremendous amount of thick black smoke. I knew firemen couldn't get to the fires because it was too high up; there's no "Cherry Picker" or hydrants with enough water pressure to put out fires 80 stories high.

I walked away trying to hide my tears because I knew people were dead in a fire of that magnitude that early in the morning.

As I walked uptown on Broadway past City Hall, I marveled at the clarity of the sky. It was a picture perfect day - not a cloud in the sky.

Other than planes crashing into the Towers, it was a beautiful day.

I visited friends who worked at 75 Varick Street near Canal Street. I needed a place to go because all mass transit stopped and I lived in New Jersey.

As we were talking, someone mentioned that it looked like one of the Towers wasn't there anymore.

That was not possible! They must be mistaken.

I had to check that out so I walked 5 blocks to the Westside Highway. I looked and sure enough, there was only 1 building standing.

Now I was devastated!

I walked back to Varick Street and noticed a strangeness in people's faces that wasn't there before I went to the Westside Highway. Something told me to turn and look - sure enough, the other building collapsed as well.

How could that be? I'd only walked for like 3 minutes!

Around 12 noon the police evacuated the entire area below 14th Street so I walked up Broadway towards a supervisor's home in Midtown. It was at least an hour walk but since no mass transit was running and no taxis available, I took the hike. .

As I approached Astor Place near 8th Street, a question ran across my mind: If what Napoleon Hill (The author of 'Think and Grow Rich') said was true when he stated, "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.", then what is the benefit of this disaster?

I got my answer in about 15 minutes.

I walked past Beth Israel Hospital on 16th Street and 1st Avenue and saw a line circling the entire block to 17th Street and 2nd Avenue.

They were giving blood. Spontaneously.

The answer I got was despite the ugliness that just happened, People are Loving. Our first instinct is to help, to save, to make a difference and to care.

I believe the benefit from the Twin Towers disaster is that it brought Humanity closer together. We can't deny our interconnectedness. We're all in this boat together. Our economies, our environments, our health and well being, our communication, our technology, our lifestyles are all merging in such a way that the differences between us are shrinking even as our diversity becomes richer and more beautiful.

As our diversity flourishes and our similarity becomes more and more evident, people will begin to see themselves in others. It's already
happening sporadically.

I believe that in 100 years, people will be walking around experiencing Love at first sight. They'll understand they're seeing another person as
beautiful as they.

That's because Love was there the whole time.

Of course, that's just my opinion, but heck - do you have a better one?
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