In the days immediately following September 11, 2001, thousands of flyers and bulletins went up in public places around New York City announcing missing family members. Initially the flyers were posted in desperate hope that loved ones were alive, perhaps unidentified in a hospital somewhere.
But in the weeks and months that followed the bulletins continued to go up, first in denial, then in tribute, and finally in defiance and anger: This was my brother. This was my wife. This is a picture of them. Last seen 9 a.m. World Trade Center.
One such bulletin was posted for many weeks on my block on the east side of Manhattan of a neighbor I never met, a handsome, smiling young man in a blue suit. He looked like the type of fellow who bounded out of bed for some athletic training and then hopped the subway downtown to get to his desk in the morning.
As the bulletin would become torn and weathered, it would be replaced every few weeks with a fresh flyer: the same handsome smiling picture:
Missing: Derek Sword
Last Seen 9 a.m. South Tower,
World Trade Center
Finally after a couple of months, another of my neighbors who I never met, took a big fat blue permanent marker and wrote right on the flier:
To Derek Sword and Family,
We Love You.
We have not Forgotten You.
We are Praying for You.
It wasn't much, quite simple words really, but the bulletin came down and was never put back up.
Quite a few years on now we still have not forgotten you. This site is dedicated to the spirit and grace of the city’s response to September 11, especially to those we lost like my neighbor Derek Sword, to all those who love them, and to my other neighbors like the street post poet with the blue magic marker whose few simple words seemed to define the Metropolitan Spirit at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Celebrating the culture and life of New York and the people who have relished the city in their work and in their lives.
Some of the most magical walks in New York begin at Cedar Hill in Central Park near 5th Av. and 79th St.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Avenue at 82nd Street breathes life and joy to visitors from around the world.
Classical Music Concerts have been presented at the Bandshell in Central Park since 1905 as described by E. B. White in Here is New York.
E. B. White and Paul Goldberger stand with F. Scott Fitzgerald as perhaps the most enchanting writers of New York.
In the 50's a few high spirited women haunted the Beat cafes in Greenwich Village and went on to live as ex-pats in Paris.
The Metropolitan Spirit of the Eternal City is evoked in Bob Dylan's “When I Paint My Masterpiece.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald recalls his experience of New York, defining the Metropolitan Spirit and his three symbols of the city.
Fitzgerald reveals how sudden good fortune, flappers, and the midnight frolic belied the secrets of the Jazz Age.
Fitzgerald recalls how the uncertainties of the 1920’s were drowned in a steady, golden roar.
In the days immediately following September 11, 2001, thousands of flyers and bulletins went up in public places around New York City announcing missing family members. First the flyers were posted in desperate hope that loved ones were alive, perhaps unidentified in a hospital somewhere.
But in the weeks and months that followed the bulletins continued to go up, first in denial, then in tribute, and finally in defiance and anger: This was my brother. This was my wife. This is a picture of them. Last seen 9 a.m. World Trade Center.
One such bulletin was posted for many weeks on my block of a neighbor I never met, a handsome, smiling young man in a blue suit. He looked like the type of fellow who bounded out of bed for some athletic training and then hopped the subway downtown to get to his desk in the morning.
As the bulletin would become torn and weathered, it would be replaced every few weeks with a fresh flyer: the same handsome smiling picture,
Missing: Derek Sword
Last Seen 9 a.m. South Tower,
World Trade Center
Finally after a couple of months, another of my neighbors who I never met, took a big fat blue permanent marker and wrote right on the flier:
To Derek Sword and Family,
We Love You.
We have not Forgotten You.
We are Praying for You.
It wasn't much, quite simple words really, but the bulletin came down and was never put back up.
Quite a few years on now we still have not forgotten you. This site is dedicated to the spirit and grace of the city’s response to September 11, especially to those we lost like my neighbor Derek Sword, to all those who love them, and to my other neighbors like the street post poet with the blue marker whose few simple words seemed to define the Metropolitan Spirit at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Celebrating the phenomenon of the Metropolitan Spirit breathing life into the city and nourishing its people.
The Who played Madison Square Garden and Jones Beach Theatre. Van Morrison returned to Forest Hills Stadium.
E. B. White, Paul Goldberger, and F. Scott Fitzgerald as perhaps the most enchanting writers of New York.
Some of the most magical walks in New York begin at Cedar Hill in Central Park near 5th Av. and 79th St.
Classical Music concerts, as described by E.B. White, have been presented at the Central Park Bandhsell since 1905.
In the 50’s, aspiring artists haunted the Beat cafes in New York and lived as ex-pats in Paris.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Avenue at 82nd Street breathes life and joy to visitors from around the world.
The Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center annually presents the works of Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini.
The Metropolitan Spirit of the Eternal City is evoked in Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals how the sudden good fortune of his first novel, and the frolic of flappers belied the secrets of the Jazz Age.
