Over these past few weeks, I’ve struggled to prepare for four separate September 11th-related projects and events:

• writing a story about mariners’ crucial role in the aftermath of the towers’ collapse (I’ll post the link shortly),
• a private commemoration aboard fireboat John J. Harvey,
• a talk I’m giving with Carolina Salguero aboard steamship Lilac as part of PortSideNY’s multimedia exhibit, and
• a reading, A Mosaic of Remembrance, on Sunday, September 11, 3pm, at the Community Synagogue Center, 325 East 6th Street in Manhattan.

Through all this I’ve been trying to take some comfort in sociologist Nancy Berns’ argument that closure is a myth: “While grief can diminish over time,” explains Boston Globe reporter Christopher Dreher, “there is no clear process that brings it to an end—and no reason that achieving this finality should be our goal.” Maybe that’s why, a decade later, this all still feels so raw.

In honor of the tenth anniversary, I’ve posted an excerpt from chapter four of My River Chronicles, “Fireboat John J. Harvey Serves Again.” You can read it HERE.

My best to everyone during this difficult week.