[ by Larry Goldfarb]

I remember the day so clearly.  It was a Tuesday morning following the Giants' defeat by the Denver Broncos on Monday night football.  I was driving to Stamford to work out of UBS’s office and then spend the afternoon on a golf course in Greenwich.  The day was perfect: crisp sunshine and the typical traffic on 287 was non-existent.

I arrived early to the Legal and Compliance floor and sat in one of the guest offices.  I heard some commotion outside and took my coffee to find a few colleagues, who arrived after me, trying to claim the office I was in.  The fighting escalated, but I just sat in the office with the door closed.  That was until we heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  We all got up and huddled around a television that was carrying the NBC Today Show. 

While the day became a blur as events were canceled and we were all told to make our way back home, two former classmates and colleagues stick in my mind.  Bobby Lawrence and Jim Munhall both worked at Sandler O’Neill.  Both perished in 9/11.  Lawrence and I went to high school together in New Jersey, at The Pingry School.  Bobby was the nicest guy on our hockey team.  He could always say the right thing to calm a situation or make you feel welcome.  Jim Munhall and I worked together at Salomon Brothers in the mid 80s.  Nicknamed the mayor, Jim was very affable never taking himself or his responsibility too seriously.   He was a great man and an even better friend.

So in this picture of 9/11, we are left with three indelible scenes: a crisp beautiful day that made you look into the sky, fighting to see who could get an office, and two beautiful people who died in the towers.  The message emanating from these renderings are that life is far bigger than you or I.  It's about generational swings and processes that govern our every day life.  It's about the power of nature having the ability to light up a day and put smiles on every face.  Pettiness or anger seems to be inconsequential in the face of a portrait of life.