And The Marketing Goes On

What a morning . . . Nothing like a fire to stir up my repressed fear of disater in New York City.

It just so happens that I had to come in to work ( at the agecy I am currently employed by) early to crank out materials for a 1pm marketing presentation. Everything seemed normal, including the subway train delay as I made my way from Brooklyn across 14th street to the end of the L line. But when the train doors opened in the station, I stepped out into clouds of smoke. There was no chaos, no police, only other people like me, covering there mouths and noses leaving only the fright in their eyes exposed.

I could only assume that there had been some small fire in the train station, hence the delay, but when I stepped out onto 14th street into a black sky, I realized I was wrong. Funny how something like this had the ability to make me feel a sadness and fright that I try so often to avoid. I am the first one to ask that people quit playing the 9/11 card, wishing it could just become a part of the past once and for all. However, I couldn't stop some memories of that day from flooding into my mind as I walked to work, into progressively smokier air. There was something hauntingly familiar about the way people were looking each other in the eye, walking to their destinations, not knowing what else to do when they know something bad is happening that can't be help by them.

I must have had coversations with at least three different strangers, all seaking some comfort in speaking to others who were also confused and helplessly scared. I finally arrived at my destination to find a watchful crowd and twenty or more fire trucks. The parking garage next strore to the building I am working in was a cloud of smoke. From the windows of the office I am now in, which is also filled with smoke, I watched three firemen side-by-side on ladders, spraying water into third floor windows from which flames were leaping. The roof had caught fire by then too.

To be honest, I have been here nearly an hour now, and I don't know if the fire is out. I had to return to my desk. Despite the fact that the smoke in the air I am breathing is worsening, the marketing must go on. Two hours and counting until the presentation materials are due - too little time for anyone to care that my eyes and the back of throat are starting to burn. I don't think I am wrong to be a little worried . . .

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I have just had my faith in the humanity of the marketing and advertising industry restored a bit. I am being sent home to work from there (yipee!) because it might not be good for me to sit here and inhale burning cars and rubber all day.