One morning I went out for a run. I was running late but so what. After 7:30am the Esplanade begins to fill with people but today it was energizing as everyone seemed to be in a good mood and fed off of each other. Little did I know around the same time a friend was saying goodbye to her husband at the airport as he headed off to LA for his first conference. As a family doctor he didn't get much opportunity for business travel. On my return home I thought what a great day this was to be. The weather was perfect. I got my ass outside before work. Shower, dress, coffee. Watching planes take off from my window while pawing through my email. It was September 11.

It's November. I'm getting out at Bowling Green and the weather is again perfect. By this time CNN had long outlived its welcome and I had debated when the right time would be do bear witness to this disaster. Now I was there. I wandered around Battery Park for a while like I did so many times when I took that summer job on Water St. Even from there the skyline was unsettling.

Astonishing.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who decided to pilgrimage that day. Hoards of people like lemmings in a maze were snaking around the side streets and construction to get a better glimpse. I was now a lemming.

Something in the city has changed. There's more talking. There's an awareness that each person is not the only one in existence as if the others that resemble people are there simply to make walking more challenging. It usually takes a day or so to lose the non-New Yorker politeness that isn't conducive to getting to your destination. I wonder if this will fade with time.

After wandering around downtown and visiting various galleries for the rest of the day I retreat to Central Park. It was said of John Adams that he sees large things largely. Small things now seemed smaller. Glad I made the trip.