part of me will always mourn

today, i am honoring carlton w. bartels who was 44 when he died in the wtc. this is a part of a match up program. bloggers everywhere signed up and then were paired with the name of one of the victims. i was given carl and i think i would have really liked him, had i ever been given the chance to meet him. at first i was worried, what if i was matched up with someone crummy or uninteresting but that is simply absurd. every person who is born has the capacity to be someone wonderful. everyone is interesting in their own ways. everyone is a precious snowflake. part of me will always mourn because some people, like the hijakers, use their capacity for harm but not carl, he wanted to save the world. he had a brilliant mind and spirit to match.

carlton was an electrical engineer by training and had become, at 26, one of the top utility regulators in vermont. later he was a pioneer of cantor fitzgerald's greenhouse gases brokering systems; he designed a way to help companies and governments reduce emissions worldwide. he loved to camp, canoe, hike, skydive and cook tasty things for his wife and two daughters. his father-in-law just wasn't too sure of carl's intentions, when long haired and clad in a frindgy jacket, carl showed up on their doorstep. during his 20s, he travelled the world and made a fashion mishap. while living in a thai village, carl took to wearing a favorite sarong, which later turned out to be a woman's sarong. the villagers giggled but so did carl, who continued to wear the outfit years later even while living in staten island. friends called him a renaissance man, so i think he must have been a lot like my husband, always good for a bit of random trivia. he was full of intelligence, insight, enthusiasm and boundless energy. his family called him a superb father and husband. he is survived by his wife Jane Muller; parents, Charles and Marion; daughters, Melina and Eva and two brothers, Gary and Richard.

most of this information came from Newsday, CNN and New York Times. i know this is a hard day for a lot of people out there, but i'm glad to know that occationally good people like carl come along and brighten up the world for a while.