On the fifth anniversary of the Sept．11 attacks, as most Americans went about their Monday routines, thousands gathered at ground zero, at the Pentagon (五角大楼) and in a field in Pennsylvania where the hijacked jetliners crashed．They included families and friends of the 2,973 people who died, President Bush and other public officials, and countess strangers united by haunting but receding memories.
At the pit in Lower Manhattan where the World Trade Center stood, they commemorated the day with familiar rituals: moments of silence to mark the times when the planes struck and the towers collapsed, wreath (花圈)-layings, prayers, the music and poetry of loss and remembrance．All were filled with emotions that still cut deeply but were showing signs of healing.
'How much do I love you?' Susan Sliwak, a mother of three, intoned (吟诵) at a microphone on a platform．above the grieving crowd, quoting from an Irving Berlin lyric in tribute to her husband, Robert Sliwak, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee and one of the 2,749 killed at the trade center．'How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky?'
About 200 spouses, partners and other loved ones took turns reading the names of the dead．Many spoke directly to their lost partners, often in firm, proud voices．Others told tearfully of the births of grandchildren or of having reaffirmed their marriage vows．Many simply expressed their love and that of their children, a promise never to forget.
Under shafts of golden sunlight, many family members knelt in the pit to pray．They hugged one another, cried softly or sobbed and set wreaths and roses adrift in reflecting pools that stand in the stead of the fallen towers．The waters were soon thick with flowers.
But if there was a theme to this year's proceedings, it was honoring the dead while moving on with life．'For all Americans, this date will be forever entwined (缠绕) with sadness,' Mayor Michael R．Bloomberg said in closing remarks during the noon hour．'But the memory of those we lost can burn with a softening brightness.'
Behind the ceremonial day, the rhythms of life in America went on．There were jobs to do, classes to attend, soccer s, weddings, births, deaths and appointments．The armies of commerce, homemakers and civil servants went about their business, not quite as usual, perhaps, but with an awareness that 9/11, a date burned into the national psyche, had edged away from catastrophe toward the realm of tragic history．It was an occasion for solemnity but no longer a wrenching heartbreak.
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