Ash Tuesday.... Horrific Beauty....

[frannyan]

In class yesterday it was said that Ash Wendessday was a day to contemplate your mortality...

Watching the TV... the images that just don't seem real...

Bits of paper flying out on a cloud of grey...

Shards of glass and metal snowing down, turning to reflect the light of a perfect blue sky, that is slowly marred by billowing clouds of black...

A line of red flame below a line of windows from which black smoke is billowing.

It can;t be real... it's too artistic...

This is something you see in a movie... something you pay 7.50 to watch on a large screen and ooh and ahh over the artistic nature of the distruction before you.

This isn't something you expect to wake up to...

The World Trade center... the Twin towers...

Gone.

Watching live TV as the 2nd tower crumbled under the weight of the burning floors above that it could no longer support. Watching one of the more promant landmarks of the NYC skyline... crumble into dust...

And the anouncer is silent in shock.

Where's the soundtrack? Quick, someone put on REM...

The sound of the two tvs... words filtering through...

The clear sky with no airplanes...

The phones that won't connect...

The internet that won;t work...

The need to call everyone you know...

To reach out and connect with everyone you care about...

'We're here... we're alive... we're okay...'