Catch the Wind - by Donovan

My sister sent me this song (I'd never heard it before) in the midst of a terrible personal loss in 2006. My brother-in-law was murdered in an act of random violence in the Bronx. I must have listened to this song a thousand times on my ipod riding the subway from the Bx to my job in midtown Manhattan over the following 6 months. The song held my hand, gave me empathy, tried to explain the unexplainable, evoked tears upon tears, and will forever be tied to NYC - and that incredible loss - for me. On 9-10-01 I reported for day 1 of jury duty in downtown Manhattan. At the end of that Monday, they told half of us we wouldn't have to return - luckily I was among those who weren't right there that next fatal morning. That said, I experienced 9/11 much like millions of others NYers - first-hand, terrified, walking and walking and walking, helplessly trying to give blood, traipsing through the ashen streets blearily staring at heartbreaking LOST signs, covering my lungs from the smell, and desperately trying to find out (and then live with) what had happened. This song, for me, is NYC, is loss, is love, is the enduring spirit, and the inevitable pain of trying to catch the wind.

Kate Barber Schultz