In Mexico when they celebrate el DÃa de los Muertos, it’s believed that during that time, the departed souls return to earth, and it’s for that reason that Mexican people will go to the graves with ofrendas of food and drink and incense.
Driving tonight – five years since September 11, 2001 – I was watching the two blue beams known as the towers of light that appear at sunset, hours after the names of the dead have been recited and flowers and personal tokens left at Ground Zero.
At one point they disappeared into some clouds, piercing them, and it looked much like a velvet curtain on a theater stage. You could almost imagine the families left behind on one side, peeking through the gap at those who died, as if there were an opportunity for the two sides to meet, on this night only.
And these towers play hide-and-seek, appearing straight ahead sometimes, on your left at others.
I can see them before sleep tonight.
In a few hours they’ll be gone, for another 364 days.