[Paddlewise] A reality check

Just another take on what happened today in my beloved Manhattan and
birthplace.

When I saw that the towers had collapsed I grabbed the latest issue of Canoe
& Kayak with an article by me about paddling in Manhattan titled "Escape
>From New York."  The photo that fills 3/4 of the two-page opening spread of
the piece shows a kayaker with the World Trade Center's Twin Towers
prominently in the background.  I needed a quick visual reminder of them and
how they stood overlooking the waters.

The towers were a beacon for kayakers in the waters of the harbor and its
outer reaches and approaches.  You could see them from well north of the
city for example, as I did on several multi-day trips I've taken down the
Hudson; I knew as they loomed larger that they were bringing me closer to
home.  You could spot them when on Long Island Sound well to the Northeast.
And they were visible in the eastern salt marshes of Jamaica Bay or out to
sea in the Lower Bay.  The towers fascinated we waterborne by their ever
changing display of color and reflected light.  That photo in Canoe & Kayak
had them in ominous blue gray of a storm impending day.  But I have also
seen them golden like the legendary El Dorado of Spanish Conquistador quest.
Something about their right angles and shape also reminded us of the
mysterious monolith in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Strange that in
that once far-forward year they are now gone.

With memory's eye, we now will have to paint their presence in the void left
behind.

ralph diaz


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