Why I was drawn to performing Magic |
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I am a giving & hard working individual that cares so much about the feelings of others. |
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I would like to share with all of you a letter that I had written exactly a year after 09/11/01. I was sitting at home with the radio on listening to the broadcasting of the 9-11 anniversary as well as online reading the postings of others, that is when I decided to write this letter and post it for others to read. I had always wanted to post this letter on my website but family members and friends at first made me think that it wasn’t appropiate. I now think “hey I am Magic Zak and this is my website, this is something that I want everyone to remember and never forget”. Every Morning I sat between the 2 towers meditating right in front of the fountain looking at the clock on the wall of the Century 21 building. I never wore a watch because I tried not to let the clock rule my life. I use to watch the people rushing to work all around me, thinking to my self how so many people don’t even see the beauty that is right in front of them. Every day people rushed onto the Path train pushing people to get a seat. Some men with their expensive suits could be seen running to steal a seat right from an elderly woman. It was all about the money to them. The NY Water Way Ferry was another place where you would see people rushing to get to and cramming into the front so once the ferry made it to WTC they would run off. I loved taking the ferry for the scenery was so beautiful even on the most dark and gloomy days. Most of all I loved coming home on the ferry and looking at the sun set over NJ and some days the sky would be such a beautiful red it was incredible. I always brought my camera to take pictures in which I have so many. I had always dreamt of one day getting married and having the wedding in the glass atrium where the palm trees were. Wow how beautiful it was in there. If you walked through the palm trees and walked up the stairs there was a platform that in the center if you stood and looked up you could look right through the glass ceiling and see the top of the antenna on the north tower. That would have been the perfect spot for a wedding; I thought when reading the vows the antenna would strengthen the signals of them making sure it would reach even the heavens for all to hear. If I wasn’t roller blading down wall street to go to my job at 1 financial square which was all the way on the east side I would walk from the fountain that I mentioned before that was between the 2 towers and start heading south east. I would walk through that little park across from 1 Liberty Plaza where so many would be seen playing chess before and after work. In that park was the sculpture of a man with his briefcase open and an umbrella beside him. This park was even so more beautiful walking through it after work in the fall for it would be dark and cold but the trees of the park would be lit up with Christmas lights. How I loved after a long hard day after work to walk slowly through that park and take a deep breath having the cold air hit my lungs and when I exhaled seeing my breath in the cold air. Then when reaching the entrance of the south tower knowing there would be these 2 homeless looking men that would most always be there holding the door for all. They held their coffee cups out to collect some money. One was a skinny man that would always say good day sir, the other had a belly and a wild beard which you could hear him mumble under his voice “got a quarter?” With these 2 guys holding the doors so many still chose to open their own door to walk threw. I guess the pressure of having to give money was the only thing on their minds for I always walked through one of the doors that those 2 men held open. Very rarely did I give money but I did always say thank you and in return I always received your welcome. This is just a few minutes of how I spent my day but yet in those few minutes there was so much to take in that most people would ignore. I tell you all to just take a look around not just at the big things but at everything, big and small, take it all in now when you have the chance for you never know when it will be gone. At the time I was a site manager for an IT consultant firm where I managed a Desktop/ Install Team at a French Investment Bank. September 10, 2001 I drove into work, and after work I went to Brooklyn to a friends house where I stayed over. The morning of September 11th we both got up and headed out of the house by 7:30, we made one stop to drop off their daughter at school and made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge. I was going to drop my friend off at work then park my car and walk to Century 21 to get a long sleeve shirt since I slept out that night. As I was driving I was listening to KTU 103.5 on the radio and all of a sudden static came across the station. I immediately switched to Z100 not even thinking of anything and that’s when I heard them talking about a plane crashing into one of the towers. At first I thought maybe it was one of those small home made airplanes for one person and that some stunt man was trying something stupid, you know nothing new around NYC. But then I heard them say did you see that? Was that an explosion from the other tower? Then hearing that it was another plane crashing into the other tower I automatically knew it was a terrorist attack. My friend still wanting to get into work not realizing what was going on made me drive still ahead to the bridge where we could see the towers burning. The feeling I got inside watching the towers burn is unexplainable but I am sure you all know and had that same feeling. Obviously the bridge had been closed down and EMT trucks, Fire trucks, Police trucks where all driving across. There must have been like 30, 40 trucks that I saw flying across the bridge. I pulled over and parked the car and ran to a payphone since my cell phone didn’t work to call my team because I knew some where in early. I reached one of my team members and they said that they saw everything, that they watched the second plane go right into the tower from one of the conference rooms and that now they are being evacuated. I told him to be safe and to get home to his family, as I was finishing up on the phone cars where smashing into one another as they drove through red lights rushing to get home. Cars where driving on the sidewalk to avoid the traffic. As I drove back to my friend’s house I could see the sky behind completely turn from clear blue to black, I mean completely black, the blackness it took up the whole sky behind me. It looked as if a storm like I had never seen was coming our way. We made it back to my friend’s house where we watched now from the television and preyed. I couldn’t reach my family back in Jersey for awhile. My mother was frantic for she didn’t know I stayed that night in Brooklyn and she new I always took the ferry or the path to work. Late that night all the major roads had been closed off, only Police and military where allowed onto the roads. I was still in Brooklyn and couldn’t make it back to NJ. I am an auxiliary police officer so I had my badge and I flashed it to the officer that was blocking the entrance to the Belt Parkway and they let me on. I was able to drive fast since no one was on the road, which felt really weird for driving on the Belt Parkway. As I crossed the bridge’s fear crept into my soul, I looked around for possibly other terrorist planes wanting to bring down the bridges, man I flew across them and was happy to have made it across. I bless god to be alive and to have been kept away from the WTC that day. Still today I called my friend up and thanked them and told them who knows what would have happened if I didn’t stay over their place in Brooklyn the night before on September 10th 2001. Working for the police in NJ and being the kind person that I am I would have stayed behind and assisted if I had went to work the morning of September 11th the normal way in which I normally did. Till this day I am still feeling the effects of such a tragedy and I thank god and prey for all those that have lost their lives but most of all for those that have lost loved ones. Learn how to enjoy life for September 11th truly shows that we never know what will happen even in a country like the good old United States of America. God Bless you all. Love, Zak Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
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