In memory of every beautiful soul we lost on 9/11

Bring your camera.  

Bring your your sketchpad.  

Bring your open eyes and open heart.

 

This photograph was taken of me by the wonderful artist Robert Carioscia a year before the World Trade Center was attacked.  Robert and I met at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and we have always kept in touch.

One fine summer day in 2001, I visited him at his artist loft in Little Italy.  He suggested I stand by the south facing window, where we could see the Twin Towers in the distance.  I love this photo because it's poignant, it's evocative of another era, and it's prescient.  Neither one of us, could have imagined that in less than a year those iconic towers would be gone and so many lives lost.  Our worlds forever changed.

I graduated from college in 1975 and I spent a year traveling--to Los Angeles, up to Marin County, down to San Francisco, returning to New York City briefly and then backpacking through Europe, working in London and France.  I will tell you the full story one day, but here's what I want to tell you.

I DIDN'T BRING A CAMERA!

This is actually one of the few regrets I have in my life.

 Here's why I didn't bring a camera:

I didn't want to be mistaken for a tourist.  But, the truth is, even though I lived and worked and stayed for an entire year, I was a tourist! 

Nowadays, when I travel, I am proud to call myself a tourist.  And I take lots of photos and I realize that I am actually A Tourist of Life.  

Aren't we all?

 Aren't we all just visiting this place called Earth?

And so, as a creative person, here's my advice to you--look at the world around you.  Really look.  Draw some pictures.  Write down what you see.  And take some photos!  I'm not talking about big, momentous things.  I am talking about the ordinary things in your own life.  For example, an urban landscape with a couple of towers in the background.  So ordinary, right?

You see, you will never know what's amazing and special and rare and passing in the present moment.  It takes time.  So please, appreciate what's right in front of you today.  See the beauty and art of the moment.  And yes, take a picture.

 With love,

Jamie