Giants (9/11)

Linus Gelber

Night falls on this September 11th, and though I'd vaguely planned to stay home, really, who was I fooling? I've shot the Tribute in Light for the last three years, and it doesn't feel right to miss it this time out. There is no funding for future years as of tonight, so this may be the last time we see this dreaming, reaching memory.

I think what makes the display so moving is its silence. Not simply its lack of noise, but also the way it so often moves us to silence as we look at it; and not only that, but the way it resists discourse.

You can't penetrate the Tribute in Light: it's simply there, on a grand scale. You may have liked The Gates or thought they were silly, you may have appreciated The Waterfalls or shrugged your way past them. The Lights, though, are simply beautiful. There isn't much more you can say about them.

Perhaps folly is the only thing we've got to embrace such pain. Maybe nothing else has arms that big.

This image has been spotted as high as #5 on the Flickr daily Interestingness charts.

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