What was it about The Gates that kept bringing 9/11 to mind?

The color for one thing. Christo and Jeanne Claude’s choice of hue was both an acknowledgement and a joyful defiance of the city’s perpetual orange alert.

One friend said the plastic orange structures reminded her of the twin towers. And the way everyone kept looking up at the fabric recalled those nightmare September days when everyone was looking up at the sky.

Someone else said that when The Gates are dismantled, it will be like life after September 11th. The way we still see the twin towers in their absence; ghost images in the skyline of what once was and will always be.

The Gates united our city in much the same way that 9/11 did. But this time we weren’t joined in grief, fear and confusion. The Gates were about joy, about the meaning of art, about being alive.

It was a carefree walk in the park for our neighbors and friends. And for that The Gates was worth every penny Christo and Jeanne-Claude spent on them.

Yours from Brooklyn,
OTBKB