Visiting New York’s national 9/11 memorial this past week, finally, I was awe-struck by how articulately its footprint chasms, and the waterfalls that surround them, seemed to pose deep questions about the meaning and destiny of tears.

I’d known, before traveling, that portions of this re-imagined, and sacred, site’s design had been conceived by Peter Walker & Partners, Santiago Calatrava, and Daniel Libeskind, but I had hardly imagined the experience of it in person.

Feeling at once the hollowness and weight of loss, as well as the tremendous wondering that has followed, I felt welcomed to ponder personally the meaning of heartbreak.

I loved, in doing further research, learning how much care went into designing the 9/11 memorial not just to mark – but to be – a watershed, carefully collecting and purposing every drop that falls on its grounds and prompting visitors to answer the question in concrete ways: can tears be remembered and, possibly, even redeemed?