Watch Paul Simon's 'The Sound of Silence' Performance From 9/11 Anniversary Ceremony

It's a moment that was as stirring as it was heart-wrenching.

During a Sunday morning ceremony honoring the nearly 3,000 lives lost 10 years ago to the day on Sept. 11, 2001, Paul Simon and his guitar created what deserves to become an iconic musical moment.

Simon performed a haunting rendition of "The Sound of Silence" that has likely already earned its place alongside such frozen cultural moments in time as Jimi Hendrix playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock, Whitney Houston singing the Super Bowl XXV National Anthem, and the recording of "We Are The World."

And as someone who was only weeks into his freshman year of college on that day in 2001, I know what musical moments my generation has probably already associated with the aftermath of that day.

Four days before the attacks, Ryan Adams shot the video for his single "New York, New York" in and around New York City, just himself and an acoustic guitar. Though obviously not related at all to the terrorist attacks, Adams appropriately dedicated the video - released shortly after Sept. 11 - to those lost that day and their families.

That year also, "God Bless America" was played during the 7th-inning stretch of every game of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets.

Those are my memories of America healing and starting to rise to its feet again - just a few of them. Now, years after he performed an equally stirring "Bridge Over Troubled Water" in the wake of the attacks, Simon has provided a musical moment that reminds us that not ever scar has healed. Some losses can never be recouped.

Watch Paul Simon perform "The Sound of Silence" at Ground Zero: