The Falling Man . . .

Here's a link to the online version of a cover story in Esquire that appeared shortly after 9/11. It's called "The Falling Man," it's by Tom Junod, and it's about the attempts to identify a certain victim at the World Trade Center who was caught in one haunting photograph. The article is also about what that photograph symbolizes and about our own complex feelings for the people who died that day and in that way.
I want to warn you: It's a long piece and after you read it, you'll probably be in a very odd mood...not necessarily good or bad but odd. As I am at this moment. Part of me wants to move past the horror of what was done to so many people that day. And part of me doesn't. The "move on" part will inevitably win because it has to, because grief is such a non-constructive human condition and to triumph over it is constructive.

But every so often, you can't help but pause and remember. And shiver.


http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0903-SEP_FALLINGMAN