Celebrating what they still have, while honoring what they have lost on 9/11
The annual FDNY ceremony is a stirring show of purpose and fraternity amidst shared loss.
We have the privilege of living right near the Firefighters Memorial in NYC. Each year it is the center of the FDNY’s memorial ceremony on 9/11 and seeing the gathering moves me in ways I’m not prepared for.
Yes, it is a reminder of the scale of the loss and sacrifice.
And the passage of time. The older firefighters carry their years and the loss and pride in their dress uniforms.
It’s the younger firefighters who strike me the most - many of them now born after 2001 - for whom this is just history and an inherited legacy. Their older colleagues won’t let them forget, but the stories will become second hand, left to narratives created by historians… and AI.
They are getting the kind of purpose and organizational belonging in their work that is increasingly escaping most of us, particularly young men.
But the lasting impression the event leaves on me each year is the clear sense of shared purpose, even fraternity - an acknowledgment that the force is roughly 98.5% male. They are getting the kind of purpose and organizational belonging in their work that is increasingly escaping most of us, particularly young men.
Today I noticed that some of pickup trucks parked along Riverside Drive were set up as tailgates. In their dress blues, guys were cracking beers at 11:15. Who’s going to say something? Others will fill up the bars, restaurants and coffee shops on the UWS for the next several hours, celebrating what they still have if also remembering what they have lost. 🫡
