Glibbertysmidgeon

The West Side Highway is eight lanes of blacktop that traces the Western edge of Manhattan along the Hudson River. It is divided down the center by a wide median dressed up with shrubs and spots of grass, punctuated by streetlights leaning over the road at regular intervals. Since the attack on the World Trade Center, it has also been the lifeline to Ground Zero. The southbound lanes are closed somewhere north of 15th St, and the only cars allowed to pass belong to residents of the area and recovery workers. The majority of traffic traveling north is coming directly out of the site.

An ad hoc sort of volunteer effort has been going on in the median of the West Side Highway, where it intersects with Christopher Street some ten blocks South of my office. Every day since the disaster, crowds of people have gathered on that spot to cheer for the recovery workers as they pass to and from the scene, waving flags and holding signs bearing messages of support and gratitude.

Today, on our lunch break, a group of people from the office decided to grab a burger and walk down to Christopher Street. When we arrived, I was surprised how few people there were. In the early days the street was lined, but today there were only ten or twelve determined well-wishers, shifting back and forth across the median, ebbing and flowing with the traffic in either direction. A woman in her fifties was passing out cups of water and salt-water taffy during the breaks in traffic.

We picked through a stack of hand made signs in different shapes and colors. Sifted through cardboard and plastic, laminated construction paper, posterboard and wood to find the sign that suited each of us. The handwriting on each was different, but the sentiment was the same.

Liz looked somber, holding a long piece of cardboard that read “Stay Strong”. Carrie raised a white piece of posterboard with the message “We Love our Heroes”. The “O” in Heroes was shaped like a heart. Julie waved “Honk for USA”, and I traded my “Gracia” in for a piece of blue construction paper, covered in clear tape, that simply read “Thanks”.

The passing traffic responded with cheers of their own. Badged and undercover police cars of every make and model whooped short quips from their sirens, or chorused an assortment of R2D2 style blips and hoots, some briefly flipped on their lights. Taxis and vans, service trucks from the phone companies, recycling services, and welding outfits honked their horns and waved back. Oversized dump trucks traveling north gave us the thumbs up as they passed, the smell of ashy dust and asbestos breezing by in their wake.

Each volunteer had a distinctive cheering style. One woman arrived wearing shorts, sunglasses, and a white shortie tee shirt with the American Flag across the chest. Plucking out a small piece of white laminated paper with which read “God Bless America”, she moved out to the curb and began enthusiastically cheering, waving, and screaming “THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!”. Many gave the ‘thumbs up’ while waving a sign or flag, others yelled their thanks into the open windows of the passing cars. Michael put down his sign and stood at the curb, composed as the Statue of Liberty, simply clapping.

I held my sign high with one arm, waving enthusiastically with the other. I wanted to call out “Thank you!” with the rest of the volunteers, but I couldn’t get past the lump in my throat. With every honk and wave from the passing cars, my smile grew wider, and my throat tighter. And so I just waved and smiled, while the tears collected in the rim of my sunglasses.

Today the world smells dark, the way it did on another uncertain day many years ago, when my cousins and I set the hayfield around grandma’s farm on fire. But this smoke comes with an even more disturbing leaden, chemical aspect. It comes smelling of doom and dark doings.

Walking around the city, I swallow gritty sediment at the back of my throat, imagining that it tastes oily, like jet fuel. I think about burning asbestos coloring my lungs. The rescue workers must be swallowing this air in great, clotting clumps. I take a deeper breath, gulping down my fair share. On the news, the nation watches heroic rescue workers walking like astronauts through a blizzard of ash. Outside Ground Zero, we are in the gray zone. Neither rescuers nor victims, insiders nor outsiders, we look for our place.

Our homes are intact, our beds are fluffy, and our grocery stores are open for business. We accept our mild inconveniences. The Starbucks stores are closed. We cannot walk through Dag Hammerskjold plaza because it’s too close to the UN. Good citizens, we remember to be thankful for the sand filled dump trucks blocking the roads, and the busloads of fresh-faced national guardsmen keeping us safe. I am somewhat awed by the growl of our protective F16 fighter, circling faithfully overhead.

But I am restless. Like the repentant child who once played with matches, I want to make restitution. I want to take my spanking and go to bed without supper, so that I can wake up tomorrow to pancakes, maple syrup, and a world that’s going to be okay. I need to give something back, in payment for the gift of having survived.

And so today I organized an outing. Four friends met on 49th Street and walked to the blood center to make our contribution. When we got there, a tired looking man with dark hair falling into his face was handing out an 800 number. “The blood centers are at their capacities. Please call this number after Friday to make an appointment to donate.”

Other restless New Yorkers had pre-empted my effort. Turning out in droves to donate blood, they lined up around the block to bare their arms for the needle. I was grateful for this bright infusion of hope, but I was also disappointed. I needed to roll up my sleeves somehow, and help. The volunteer centers, also, were overwhelmed with unskilled hands. They had no use for me.

Later in the day I passed by The Chelsea Piers. There was a caravan of help plodding into the crisis center. People wheeling, packing and carrying a stream of blankets and Baggies, paper towels and bottled water. Donations for the rescue effort. I made a mental note to yard out those extra blankets and bring them down.

This evening I am sitting in a small café with red walls, eating chicken cacciatore and watching a brand new television, shouldered among the designer teas and hand painted coffee mugs on a wire shelf. All of the local businesses are showing the news. This morning I watched Mayor Giuliani speak from the new TV in the lobby of the doggie gym. I stir my iced tea, and the tinkling sound startles two men sitting in front of me.

“Sorry,” one shrugs, “Guess I’m still a little jumpy.”

“It’s okay,” I reply. “we all are.”

The strangers invite me to join them at their table, where they have a better view of the news. It’s like that around here now. The subways wait for the latecomer sprinting down the stairs before closing the doors. Bartenders pour our drinks extra strong. We are living in a kinder, gentler New York, where people walk more slowly and meet the eyes of strangers on the street. Smiling at strangers is less about feeling happy, and more about moral support. “I’m glad you’re alive” my smiles say to people I’ve never met. They smile back.

When I see a firefighter or a police officer I am overcome with love and gratitude. I want to hug the ambulance driver, and the tired woman in scrubs sipping her coffee and watching the news. I want to kiss those rescue dogs, and slip cookies into the pockets of the Red Cross volunteers. I want to bring a cup of coffee to every single person who is working to keep us safe, and to bring our missing loved ones out to safety.

In a city where, for seven months, I have felt like a stranger, I’ve suddenly become part of the family.

On the corner of Avenue A and 14th street, a graffiti artist called Chico has done his penance. On the side of a dry cleaner’s building is the familiar image of the two skyscrapers billowing smoke amidst a peaceful city skyline. In tidy script, the piece is titled, “In Memory of Friends and Family.” I paused to watch people carefully arranging flowers and candles at the base of the wall.

My young cousins and I couldn’t bring back that year’s lost crop of hay. We couldn’t make our world back into the place it was before we dropped the match. And so I have tried to become a person who deserved the love and forgiveness my family gave me all those years ago. I tried to grow up right. Sometimes that’s all you can do.