Every 9/11 I like to listen to Bowie’s “New Killer Star” off the Reality album. The song isn’t specifically about the events of that day in 2001, but they do make oblique reference to what happened. What I like about the tune is it’s optimism - not always an emotion associated with Bowie! So much thinking about 9/11 is so depressing, because it really sent us down a path that seems to me to inevitably leading to a culture war - Christian vs. Muslim! - that could ensnare not only multiple countries but potentially the entire world. Who knows what will actually happen, but the future doesn’t look bright. The sad thing is that humanity is actually better then what we’ve displayed recently... there are brilliant highs to go along with the horrible lows, and I have faith that human ingenuity might find a way out of this mess. Anyways, that’s what the chorus of “New Killer Star” makes me think of, when Bowie sings:

I'm thinking now
(I got a better way)
I discovered a star
(I got a better way)
Ready set go
(I got a better way)
A new killer star

Who knows what it really means? But what’s important is what I get out of it. And so there you are. I remember by hoping that as a species can transcend our baser emotions and come together as one before we do something that kills us all. So sue me.