Exploration 4

     All of the stories touched me in different ways, but the one that stood out the most was that of Nick Chirls.  Losing his mother took away a huge part of him.  I wonder who he was before 9/11.  His mother, Catherine, had just started a new job and at the time of the tragedy, he didn't know which building or what floor she was on.  When his dad got home, he said she worked on the 104th floor of Building 1. 
     Not knowing what to do or how to think, he went swimming to get his mind off of everything.  That night, he and his brother and sister slept in their dad's bed.  "It was the worst day of my life".
     I did a web search for when the sparrow lands on his head during his eulogy at the memorial service for his mom.  Some people talked about how it must have been God giving him a sign, or his mother coming to him through the bird, and yet others talk about it only being only a coincidence.  No matter what the true cause of that moment, when you see his face light up as he looks into the eyes of that tiny bird nothing matters but the peace it gave him for a few short seconds.  In the wake of a great national tragedy, a little sparrow gave a young man a few seconds of joy.  It is truly amazing.
     But that moment faded quickly as the days went by without his mother.  He wanted to punch a kid for hanging a flyer that defended the people that killed his mom.  I don't blame him. 
     The home videos would be difficult to watch.  I loved how his mom didn't get upset at the relighting candles, but instead said that they all get more wishes.  His wish was that she have a good time a camp. 
     His dad remarried, to his moms good friend.  This was very upsetting to Nick and he and his father grew apart.  He called his house a lonely house, a cold house.  He had a dream that they were having a memorial dinner for his mom and she suddenly showed up.  He hugged her really tight, no talking, his face in her hair and just smelled her....very moving.
     His story goes on to talk about him taking a job on Wall Street, because that is where his mother worked.  He felt close to her there, especially on the subway.  But eventually he realized he wasn't his mother, and that wasn't where he wanted to be.  It was his turning point....his rebirth.  He used to hate Osama Bin Laden, but decided that was absurd.  He didn't even know the guy.  He had to come to terms and let go of the anger....the terror.
     He got his BA in economics and wrote a book about the search for his mother....not just at the World Trade Center, but also who she was before that.  He only knew her at home. 
     He started having weekly dinners with his dad and began healing.  His dad apologized for remarrying so soon.  He finally saw his dad as a guy, a human being, that had lost his wife and his best friend.
     In the final scene of the documentary, Nick says "Everyone heals in a completely different way.  I had to go through all the steps of the process".  That speaks monuments for how much he overcame and how he persevered through such a heart-wrenching tragedy.
    Having this film in time-lapse was amazing.  It showed the healing of 5 individuals into view much more clearly than any other way it could have been filmed.  While researching Nick Chirls, I ran across an article published on September 11th, 2002 in The New York Times entitled "NICK CHIRLS; On the Wings of a Sparrow, Comfort and Celebrity Came Down on a Teenager".  It described the bird landing on his head, plus added "Nick, now 17, had some qualms about celebrity but concluded he would be glad someday to watch a videotape of his life unspool in the wake of that terrible day. A diary of a time when an already-mature teenager faced the unthinkable and persevered."  The foresight that Jim Whitaker had to make this film gave Nick just that opportunity.
     The most important thing that I took away from these 5 stories is that these are only 5 stories.  There are approximately 2,795 stories just like these that we haven't heard, and I am sure not all of them have a happy ending.  This "rebirth" may have happened for the majority of those most effected that day, but what about the others?  How many couldn't come to grips with what happened and have never recovered?  How many "survivors" of 9/11 didn't truly survive?