The Memorial rush
: Greg Allen has a wonderful and true post about finishing his World Trade Center memorial proposal. Looking at the picture in the Times of proposal stacked upon proposal in a Manhattan warehouse was both exhausting and exhilerating: so much competition, yet so much care from some many people.
It was one matter to come up with the concept. I knew my own goals for a memorial — a memorial someone else would be designing — months ago. Then I knew how I would design it.
But it was another matter to figure out how to put that down on a 30-by-40 board. As Greg put it in an empathetic email to me: You go into “when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail” mode. He fell back on Powerpoint. I fell back on Word and I bought myself a pica pull (something we used to use on hot type, my children) and an Xacto knife (something we used to use on cold type, my children) and way too many artist’s supplies I didn’t know how to use. I wrote my essay and printed it out on clear sheets that I rolled onto the board. I used Word to create little colored boxes with explanatory text. I took pictures and turned them into collages. I stuck my tongue out and drew a few clumsy drawings. I wrote headlines; that’s what I know how to do.
And I sent it off, worrying (as did Greg) about the packing (I hope that kid at the UPS store knew what he was doing!).
I said this about it in my sermon:
I decided to submit one myself
