The Illuminated Donkey

Happy New Year!

This will be my last IllDonk posting of 2001, so I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank the many great writers I've been introduced to this year, the readers who have stopped by to see what I had to say, and the folks who dropped me a line to compliment or complain.  I'm looking forward to a lot more of this next year, hopefully during a 2002 that's better for everybody.  A lot has gone right for me in 2001.  I'm still with Rachel, with hopes for a bright future.  My mother is doing as well as we could hope for at this point.  I've celebrated friends' and family's births, marriages, and engagements.  I'm healthy, happy, and employed.  Life could be a lot worse.

I'd like to close out the year with a moment that's been much on my mind these past few days, as I've thought about what I'll bring with me from 2001.  On September 11, at around 12:40 in the afternoon, I received a phone call from one of my favorite people in the world, my old Seattle roommate.  We had spent the last few hours desperately trying to track down one of our closest friends, who worked on the 90th floor of one of the World Trade Center towers.  We were calling everybody we knew who might know anything, running through every possibility for her safety.  Nobody who lived through those hours will ever forget the incredibly nightmarish confusion, fear, chaos, and uncertainty.  Finally, at 12:40, my old roommate got a phone call from her, and he called me soon after.  She was safe, and back home in Brooklyn.  It might be the most wonderful call I've ever received. 

Tonight, I plan to remember that moment, and say a prayer for the people who never got that call.  In 2002 and beyond, let's continue to do everything we can to make sure that we never again have another day like that.