Such a Long Time to Be Gone and a Short Time to Be Here

NEW YORK (Real Money) --

What do you want me to do
To watch for you while you're sleeping?
Well, please don't be surprised when you find me dreaming too;
It's just a box of rain,
I don't know who put it there.
Believe it if you need it,
Or leave it if you dare;
But it's just a box of rain
Or a ribbon for your hair;
Such a long, long time to be gone,
And a short time to be there.

-- Grateful Dead, "Box of Rain"

Sept. 11, 2001, still seems like yesterday to me. It is a day that I will forever remember vividly with clarity and disbelief.

To many of us, 2001 will forever be annus horribilis -- the year of horror.

On this day, as has been the case for the last 11 years, my eyes remain full of tears as I write this column in memory of all of those I knew (and those I didn't know) who were lost in the World Trade Center, in Pennsylvania and in Washington, D.C. It is said that death leaves a heartache that no one can heal but that love leaves a memory no one can steal.

And so it is today Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, we observe the eleventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

As I have for each of those years (with the blessing and permission of the powers that be on TheStreet and on Real Money Pro), today I want to pass along my thoughts by writing this opening missive as a dedication to some of those who were lost -- especially to my best pal, Chuck Zion (a.k.a., Brown Bear).

Chuck worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, the brokerage firm that lost nearly 700 employees 10 years ago. It was the hardest-hit company in the World Trade Center tragedy, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the building's deaths that day. I lost many friends at Cantor on Sept. 11: Eric, Pat, Timmy -- too many to count. So did many others. And of course, we all lost one of TheStreet's own, Bill "Budman" Meehan.