wash your language

  • All Posts
  • Publications
  • Services
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Archives for 911

The view from the roof

September 11, 2018 by EmmaP Leave a Comment

I took this photo in 2000 from the rooftop of my workplace near the Flatiron building in Manhattan, on 19th Street between 5th and 6th. We worked long hours at our vibrant little web agency, and we’d often pop up to this rooftop for some air, a chat, a look at this view and to remember why we were in New York. Standing on the roof we were 17 stories up, at the level of the water towers and the birds – we were floating high above the streets in this vertical city. Down below us, New York and its people, from all over the world, flowed on through the streets, underground, up and down buildings. Living their lives.

On September 11th 2001, my boyfriend (now-husband) and I stood on another rooftop – 4 stories  up on our apartment building in Brooklyn. We scrambled up the fire escape when we heard that something was going on. We had been listening to the radio while getting ready to go to work but the signal had died: our local NPR was beamed from the twin towers, and this was long before mobile internet. We stood on our rooftop and on the skyline a few miles away we watched another plane calmly, quietly fly straight into the second tower, and soon after, the whole thing collapsed in on itself. It was completely quiet around us on that beautifully sunny morning and I looked down over the edge of the roof to the street below. Instead of scenes of panic, people of all nationalities walked or drove down the street with their groceries. Living their lives. And that continued during the days that followed, people moving forward, not being afraid. And that will never change.

(I shot and printed this photo myself. It’s been hanging on the wall of all the houses we have since lived in, from the US to Canada to Norway to Italy and now in Ireland).

Filed Under: Photography, Travel Tagged With: 911, New York

A Blog and More

I write about language and the quirks of our family life in Dublin and previously in Italy and Norway. Read More…

RSS
Facebook
Facebook
fb-share-icon
Twitter
Visit Us
Tweet
Instagram

Instagram

Plane trees Plane trees
The number 5 has secretly been defining my life fo The number 5 has secretly been defining my life for the last year. Here's the story, on the blog (link in bio)
-------
For the last few months of this pandemic, my world has been shrunk to 5 kilometres. It’s not just me, it’s been the case since Christmas for everyone in Ireland. (In theory, at least). Now that our Covid radius is going to expand beyond 5km after April 12, I’ve realised the number 5 has actually defined my life in many ways.  There are 5 of us at home. Four humans and one dog. That’s 5 living beings, each of whom needs to be fed, clothed, cleaned, exercised, entertained, and kept in line....  Keep reading at https://washyourlanguage.com/the-covid-5-and-me/
Blossoms in the park Blossoms in the park
Load More…
Please enter the Page ID of the Facebook feed you'd like to display. You can do this in either the Custom Facebook Feed plugin settings or in the shortcode itself. For example, [custom-facebook-feed id=YOUR_PAGE_ID_HERE].

Facebook

Wash my language?

Språkvask is the Norwegian word for proofing text. Literally it means “language wash”; a more poetic way of saying it!

Blog comments

  • EmmaP on First Swim in the Sea – in November
  • Rosemary on First Swim in the Sea – in November
  • EmmaP on First Swim in the Sea – in November

© 2021 · Handcrafted with d by 2 Pups Design Co.