Put not your trust in princes...

One World Trade Center is almost complete. Current projections indicate that the building will be ready for occupancy in the Spring of 2014. Slightly more than half of its three million square feet of office space has already been leased, with the magazine publishing giant, Condé Nast, accounting for 1.2 million square feet of occupancy. The building will support 104 stories (the original, 1973 Twin Towers supported 110 stories) and top out at a symbolic 1,776 vertical feet.

            I remember when the original Twin Towers opened for business in 1973.  I was a freshman at Fordham University, in the Bronx, where, on a clear day, you could see the World Trade Center from the roof of Keating Hall, the tallest building (at that time) on the campus.  I also remember the mix of excitement and criticism the Twin Towers generated.  At the time, they were the tallest buildings in the world (and would continue to hold the distinction of being the tallest buildings in New York - New Yorkers never cared about what was going on in Chicago - until their destruction in 2011).  And while their architectural and engineering advances inspired universal admiration (there wasn’t a single interior column - excepting elevator shafts - anywhere in their slightly more than 40,000 square feet per story floor plan), New Yorkers dismissed the Towers’ nod to the brutal modernism of Le Corbusier as “boxy” and uninspiring. Over time, we grew used to the Twin Towers and, while they never generated the same kind of warm appreciation New Yorkers had for the Empire State Building as an iconic example of the New York skyline, they nevertheless became part of the City’s taken-for-granted landscape as generators of tourists’ interest (and dollars).  That is, of course, until September 11, 2001.  In the ninety minutes it took both towers to collapse in on themselves, creating a mountain of debris and a new moniker (“Ground Zero”), they were transformed into beloved icons of New Yorkers resident within the city limits and among its Diaspora (I am a member of the latter category).

            As a New York expat, I am particularly amenable to this revisionist characterization of the World Trade Center because of three poignant connections I have to the Twin Towers.  The first connection took place on February 25, 1993, the day before the first terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center.  At just about the time the bomb-laden van exploded in the underground parking structure on February 26^th (the next day), I was passing through the World Trade Center as I transferred from a New Jersey PATH train to a NYC bound “A” Subway train. When I awoke the day of the bombing to learn that “timing is everything,” I realized that - like it or not - the Twin Towers loomed large in my personal corner of the world.  The next two connections are irrevocably linked to the 9/11 tragedy. Two of my former students - one a stock broker working in the North Tower - the other an FDNY firefighter - lost their lives in the collapse of the towers. The third connection to the tragedy is my brother who still works in the Office of Management and Budget at New York City Hall - a mere three blocks from Ground Zero - and who I could not get in touch with until late in the evening (PST) on 9/11.

            So, it should not be surprising that 9/11 is a moment in time for me that is as familiar as my own birthday. Like most current and former New Yorkers, the anticipation of 9/11 is a complicated matter. New Yorkers view themselves as invincible. 9/11 puts the lie to that conceit. Yet, the almost magical appearance at Ground Zero of twin beams of bluish light piercing the stratosphere on the evening of 9/11 for each of the last 12 years inspires a certain respect for the hand of God that is hard to explain to anyone not of New York. I have only seen the twin beams of light in pictures.  The New Yorker in me yearns to return on this awful anniversary to the City that formed me in order to share in the lights’ symbolic message that we can never know what will happen next, other than to trust in a God who knows what the endgame looks like and who gently invites us to trust in this ethereal vision. Not an easy proposition for New Yorkers - even expats - to embrace.

            I am writing this column on 9/11/2013, so forgive me for these New York-centric ruminations. However, I think they have merit, if you flip through the Summer issue of Lancer Magazine.  It's our annual issue in which we celebrate the accomplishments of our recently launched alums of the Class of 2013. The one cliché that is always true for them (and for every high school graduate) is that they have the whole world in front of them.  At 18 they see themselves as invincible as the most cynical New Yorker of any age.  They will learn, over time, as we all have, that invincibility is as fragile as the morning fog.  We can neither alert them to this reality nor cushion their hard landing when they refuse to accept its inevitability. What we can do - and what 9/11 teaches us - is that, in the face of inexplicable - and unpredictable - life shattering events we must turn to a higher power - for Lasallians, that is God - who will assure us that we must not put “our trust in princes,” but in a Lord whose comfort is unconditional and available the moment we ask for it.