dedication

Every year on September 11, my friend Stephen visits and we walk to Ground Zero. Here are some photos from last year.

This year, we participated in the floating lanterns ceremony. You can write names or messages for peace on Japanese lanterns, which are then lit and floated out onto the Hudson River at sunset. There was Buddhist chanting and meditation. The lanterns floated out onto the river.

I dedicated my lantern to Christopher M. Colasanti. I didn’t know him, but of course we are all connected in some way. Stephen tried to draw drew Manhattan with a sunset, since we were supposed to be on top of the Tower on September 11 at that time. The lantern in progress:

The night was partially cloudy, so there were cool lighting effects.

We have this thing about needing to get as close as possible to the Tribute in Light. I guess it’s a way of remembering that no matter how hard life gets or how sad we are, we’re alive. We’re alive and we have an obligation to live the best life we can. We can never give up. Last year, we snuck onto a roof across from the lights. But this year we kind of got caught. Then we snuck onto another roof and it was the roof where the Tribute in Light was set up! We were up close.