New World Trade Center making eerie sounds – to me, that is a perfect sort of accident. What better to remind us of the past which we should not soon forget. What better way to be reminded, than in relation to our efforts to show that we remain ‘unaffected’ by the attacks.

I am an aficionado of ghost stories. The metaphysics of it appeal to me less than the opportunity to revisit history with the people who made it, or experienced it in the making, in tow. We really ought to remember those who died along with the symbolic destruction of the former buildings when witnessing the ‘phoenix’ that has now risen from those ashes. To me, therefore, this whistling or moaning, however come by, is a delight. I don’t see it as a curse as much as a blessing.

I was ‘odd’ in my reaction to 9/11 in that I did not leap to anger and retributive intent so much as I stood in shock and awe and underwent personal contemplation in its aftermath. For me, in my contemplation, it was a ‘spiritual’ hit we took that day. Only the most ardent denialists can say that this country did nothing to deserve it, especially as symbolized by those buildings. Symbolic of our financial might, world power, and ego driven pride, which we have come to exercise largely without conscience, and not just in the world ‘out there,’ but here at home as well.

To me it was an attack against the hubris of believing that the power so symbolized could never be touched or brought low by the ‘little guy’ and I hope that we won’t forget that aspect of the attacks, much as most of us would like to forget. Hell, I wish people would contemplate it thusly for the first time, as I perceive that most have not done so, as yet.

We all know our days of empire are numbered – why don’t we prepare emotionally for that foreseeable demise? Why don’t we contemplate in what way its demise might be appropriate or even desirable? Why, if we are truly as powerful as we believe ourselves to be, can we only react with aggression, denial, and foolhardy repetition of the past? In doing so, we have cost ourselves far more than the terrorists did on that fateful day.

And, so, I hope the new world trade center keeps right on moaning, even after all of the windows have been placed, and despite all efforts to cure it from doing so. That is my hope! Because in those moans we might just pause yet to remember the humanity in play that day, as opposed to the mere replacement of our symbolic structures, i.e. our materialism. We really could stand to do so, however painful that process is posed or might yet prove to be. It’s called healthy, and we aren’t healthy, that much is painfully obvious.