September 17, 2011

Normally I do a pretty good job of shielding myself from the ambient emotional emanations. You grow up in one of the world's biggest cities and you instinctively keep other people's thoughts and moods out of your head. But when millions of people are all focusing on one single sad and tragic event, the blue vibes become hard to resist.

Last week marked the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the air was full of ghosts.

On September 12th I was asked where I was and what I was doing on 9/11 and despite having related it here in this blog, I was vaguely offended at having been asked. The person who asked was not someone who I have a close relationship with, or even like. After swishing it around in my mind for a while I think the best way that I can articulate it is that in talking about horrific events, we get to decide how and when we talk about them and should not be quizzed in order to satisfy an idle curiosity.

In this era of online disclosure of our every passing thought, there still needs to be some decorum, some respect, some boundaries.