August 29, 2006

Spoke with Nikki Stern this morning. She had lost her husband, geologist and business analyst James Potorti, on 9/11, and had worked tirelessly with an advocacy group called Families of September 11. One of her causes was to try to ensure that news organizations provide some sort of warning before airing graphic footage of the attacks, as a way of softening the blow of such imagery for the unsuspecting viewer.

Now, it turns out, Stern has evolved into quite a writer. Over the past year, she had e-mailed me some of her unpublished social commentary. I knew that she had long ago received a master's degree in political science and had spent many years in public relations. But this weekend she had her first piece in The New York Times -- a frank, eye-opening account of a post-9/11 affair that she had had with a married man. It makes for engaging reading and reminds us that the deeper story of the effects of 9/11 on individual lives rarely conforms to a pat narrative. Instead, there are unexpected complications, pain, and revelation at every turn.