Tim Tuttle was a Wall Street banker working hard everyday to make a good living. But it wasn’t until tragedy struck that he realised there is more to life than making money.
He was at Ground Zero, working on September 11th, 2001. He survived. He made it out. Not all of his friends did. And ultimately, surviving the attack itself is only part of making it on out alive on that day.
The confusion of what is happening around you. The horror in the eyes of the people you see. The hoping and praying that your friends who you hadn’t seen on that one day that they did not make it into work. The slow understanding of the lives lost. The survivors guilt. The anger. All of those things stay with a survivor long after the physical event happens. Surviving the initial attack is only part of it because the emotions and trauma from that day is something every survivor will have to confront and that is when they can start healing.
Tim Tuttle found that healing in music. For 24 years, he has been writing and performing songs about that day to not only help himself heal and continue to move forward in life, but for the other survivors too.
Photo by Robin Richardson.
Healing is a long and often painful journey. It can be difficult to express and come to terms with the multitude of emotions created from tragedy. It can be hard to cry in private, let alone with a community of other survivors. Yet, tears and community can be vital to getting through grief. Off-Broadway will be that place that community can come together, not have to say a single word, and allow people to heal.
In a time when community is needed more than ever, when politics have broken the bridge of humanity — this is the time for everyone to come together, to cry, to remember, and to just give ourselves the opportunity to heal.
Tim Tuttle stopped being a Wall Street banker after 9/11. Instead, he dedicated his life to making art — songs and a show — so that everyone, not just himself, but the community can continue to heal. All of which culminated into a musical called 44 Lights. For Tim, helping people continue to live their lives is how he learned to not just make money, but to truly live. Because honestly, even without terrorist attacks, no one knows how long they have — so let’s live life while we can.
The images in this article are curtesy of Robin Richardson and Jonathan Slaff. Used by permission, their respective owner(s) reserve Copyright.
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