“I woke up this morning to an empty sky.” (Bruce Springsteen, “ Empty Sky ,” The Rising ) As we neared the ninth anniversary of 9/11 this week, I pulled out Bruce Springsteen’s tribute album to 9/11, The Rising. In “Empty Sky,” he perfectly captured the sense of direction the twin towers gave us here in Northern New Jersey and New York. On a clear day, you could see the towers from twenty miles or so away, and for those living in the metropolitan area the towers marked our proximity to home. Whether we were coming up the Turnpike from a short trip to the Shore, or returning from spending the holidays in Illinois, the first sight of the towers meant we were almost home. Still, to this day, I look for those towers when I see the New York skyline, but the sky is still empty where they used to be, and we all know how that happened. We have picture of my Mom, Marcia, Alyssa, and me sitting at a window inside the South Tower observation deck on the 107th floor, looking back waving. Beh...
by Chris Rainey. This is a blog of my journaling, essays, opinion pieces, religious satire, and creative writing.