Written as I listen to Bruce Springteen’s CD The Rising.
My mind keeps wondering to places I have been and things I have seen with my dear wife, Carrie.
This past summer Carrie and I visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. It is where the Twin Towers sat. Today was the first 9/11 to come around, obviously, since we were there this summer. I didn’t know today would come with so many memories and haunting sights and sounds that we gave a short glimpse to that day. At least, I didn’t expect to feel this way.
When my friend Robert Becker played songs on his radio station this morning in Seymour, Indiana, he played songs from The Concert For New York. The lives of members lost from Ladder Company 3 were mentioned before a song by The Who was played. Immediately my mind came back to the moment I took this picture above. A tear came to my eye.
You will never find a place with more people that is as quiet as this place. It is amazing. There is a presence there for sure. You feel it.
Another place on my mind is the home away from home Carrie and I found together about fifteen years ago. It is our place. We have shared it with others, but it is our place. That place is the North Carolina Shore. Topsail Island, North Carolina to be specific. With Hurricane Florence coming straight toward Topsail, pronounced Top-sul and not Top-sail, I am afraid Carrie and I will be dealing with the possibility of a place we will have to remember. When we get back, I have no doubt it will be a different place.
Sunrise
That Sky. I wrote a song about it a year later.
The town of Topsail Beach.
Writing one of those songs.
A fortunate man.
I took this last Spring. I hope that pier makes it.
I hope this place makes it too. Good fish. Great people.
Faith Harbor United Methodist is closing up Wednesday and they hope to get back Monday. I pray for all my Topsail friends.
I love to look back fondly on things of the past. The idea of only being able to look back at some of the places, faces, and sights we have grown to love scares me.
God be with all in the path of this storm.
Speaking the rights.
Danny Johnson