Though nothing will keep us together
We could steal time just for one day
We can be heroes for ever and ever
What d'you say?
-"Heroes"
David Bowie
This morning at 9 am, my running companera Gidg, my fleet-footed friend Jerry, and I shall join a field of several hundred runners in the 19th Annual Fallen Heroes 5K, which begins and ends at Bar A on 16th Avenue in Lake Como. Its purpose? As stated succinctly on its website, "We will memorialize the ultimate sacrifice of our brothers and sisters and all the lives lost on that day and celebrate their memories!"
Hell of a good way to spend thirty minutes or so on a Saturday morning in September. It is a race in which fire departments from across New Jersey participate - some in large numbers - including firefighters who are so young that they could not have been more than a few years old, if that, on September 11, 2001.
For a run-of-the-mill civilian (and fair-to-middling human being) like Yours truly, spending the time in the company of heroes, honoring the memory of heroes, comes damn close to feeling as if I have cheated my way into a gathering I am otherwise unworthy to attend. Theirs is tremendous company to keep.
Even if it is just for one day.
-AK
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