Questions with no answers
Muse #233 - sometimes there are really no answers at all
There are questions for which there are no real answers. But, yet these questions never ever go away. One of those that continue to be there even today, is around 9/11. Now twenty years on.
I vividly remember being in Singapore in 2001 watching CNN that evening. A few in my friend’s network had texted me asking to watch TV to see the replay of a plane hitting one of the twin towers. And within the next few minutes ended up watching the live telecast of the second tower being hit too. The impact of these memories are never ever going away.
Subsequently, between the years of 2003-2005, I ended up working in lower Manhattan in New York City. I often ended up taking the NJ PATH train into downtown Manhattan into the temporary stations rigged right near the demolished towers. Each trip also left an unexplainable feeling while passing through that debris that was being cleared off.
All I am left with questions like:
Why? What was the meaning of this?
What would it have been to be working that day on top of one of the twin towers and be impacted by it?
Is it easier to die instantly hit by the plane, or await an impending doom of dying later?
What is it to be part of the firefighters and other brave men and women who went in to help and never came back?
How does it feel to have escaped from that building that day and to live with it life-long?
How does it feel to lose a loved one that day and live with that feeling all of one’s remaining life?
Well, fortunately, I have been blessed enough not to live out any of these scenarios. But, the questions and thoughts linger. When you try to put yourselves into the shoes of others with these questions, you realize the paucity of answers. More so around the Sep 11 dates. And these would continue to linger on…
Reference:
9/11 Timeline: Three Hours That Changed Everything - https://www.visualcapitalist.com/9-11-timeline-three-hours-that-changed-everything/