Today, I remember. 

9/11. 

This event was a real marker in my life. The rumblings I felt that night profoundly shifted things within me. 

I was about as far from New York as you can get, sitting in my living room in Melbourne. 

I had been out at a meeting and when I got home I decided to watch The West Wing, which meant that I was still up when our late night news began. 

I watched TV the whole night through, utterly dumbstruck.

This was the pre-Facebook, pre-mobile phone era (for me anyway) and I remember how utterly alone and helpless I felt, sitting in the dark, watching what I could not comprehend. 

I remember that I desperately wanted to phone someone, but it was the middle of the night and I honestly didn’t know what to say… turn on the TV, I think the world’s gone mad. 

I remember driving to uni the next morning, not knowing what this event would mean for the world. 

I remember in the days that followed, my overriding urge was to be with people. We didn’t have the answers, but we found comfort in each other’s presence. 

I remember…. 

In a strange coincidence, Sting had a live-streamed concert scheduled for September 11, from his home in Italy. 

Like the rest of the world, he and his band mates woke up to a nightmare unfolding, and watched in horror as the Workd Trade Center crumbled and fell. 

The single that had been chosen weeks, if not months in advance… Fragile. 

If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrow’s rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime’s argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star, like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are, how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star, like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are, how fragile we are
How fragile we are, how fragile we are. 

 

We are all so fragile, mere flesh and blood, with the power to create, destroy or to bring solace… we must choose wisely. 

 

Annette x