A crowd of people facing away from the camera.

(iStockphoto.com)

by Linda Holmes

Eight years ago this morning, my friend (and Monkey See contributor) Sarah Bunting was speaking on a panel about online content valuation that took place a few blocks from the World Trade Center.

Every year, I reread the essay she wrote about her experiences, not to relive the very frightening things she saw, but because the story includes moments of grace realized -- the lady who sells her (gives her, really) a pair of shoes to change into, the Chinese restaurant that lets her in to clean up in their restroom, where she notes that she has ashes in her hair -- that provide, as she often says, the very very tiny rays of hope to be taken from it.

But her greatest help that day came from Don, the "disaster buddy" she stayed with on the walk from the Bank Of New York, where they -- along with a lot of other people -- had taken shelter, to the point where he got on a ferry to go home to Jersey City.

Today, among other things, is Don's birthday, and every year, Sarah puts out a call to see if she can find him, just so she can say thank you. This year, her story was featured on WNYC's The Takeaway.

(Stacking the karmic deck in her favor, just a tad: Sarah is a major doer of Internet good deeds: her blog, Tomato Nation, holds annual fundraisers for Donors Choose, an organization that raises money for classroom projects, and each of the last two years, she has raised more than $100,000. She has shaved her head for charity, and she has dressed as a tomato and danced in the middle of Rockefeller Center.)

So if you are looking for something positive to focus on, read a little about Don and see if you might know him. You have to admit, it would be pretty cool to be the person who solved the mystery.

categories: Internet

10:10 - September 11, 2009

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