Photos: Eric Kanigan – Midtown Manhattan today at 5:20 pm on 6th Ave, 1 block from Times Square
Midtown Manhattan – 5:20 PM Today. Lock Down.
March 22, 2020 by 49 Comments
Saturday Morning
January 25, 2020 by 29 Comments
Walking Cross Town. Small gestures with big tailwinds.
October 31, 2019 by 54 Comments
Late to bed Tuesday night, following long return flight from Phoenix.
Late jump Wednesday morning.
4th morning train to NYC.
Light misty rain.
And, Terry Tempest Williams continues to lay tracks.
“In the end, it’s rarely the large gestures that count, it’s the small ones.”
My antenna is up.
On train, a middle aged man gives up his seat for a lady. She’s not young. Not old. Not pregnant. He just does it. And stands for the entire 55 minute ride.
At Grand Central Station, Construction worker, hard hat under his arm, looks behind as he crosses the threshold of the exit, sees me coming, holds door open. I was several yards back. Let’s say 10 yards back. Rare occurrence. It was a conscious act. Everyone is exhausted with political attacks, the lack of civility. How about some decency today?
And the gestures, small, keep coming.
Flight to Phoenix. Elderly lady sits in aisle seat. Not her seat. “Would you mind taking the window seat.” She gestures asking him to lean closer: “I have a bladder problem.” He slides across and takes the window seat. “No problem.” She exhales.
Susan out for a morning walk in Phoenix. She returns to tell me “the most unbelievable story.” I roll my eyes. Can’t wait to hear this. She comes across a lady walking “Sunny”, a Golden Doodle. Lady asks where we’re from. Susan explains. “Here to visit my husband’s younger brother. He’s hospitalized and breathing with the aid of a ventilator.” Lady pauses to assess the receptiveness of her planned gesture. “I’m sorry to be so forward, but would you mind if I said a Prayer for him and for you.” And then proceeds to reach for Susan’s hands, and Prays.
I walk across Fifth Avenue. It’s 7 a.m. E.S.T. and 4 a.m. in Phoenix.
He’s sleeping now, machine pumps oxygen into his lungs.
I stand waiting for the cross walk sign to turn.
I look up, light drizzle brushes my face, three flags flap over a major hotel entrance.
I inhale deeply, and then exhale, and this Agnostic fires up his own Prayer.
Breathe Bro. Breathe.
Photo: Mine with smartphone. At Times Square yesterday morning, at the end of my cross-town walk. NYC awakening.
Riding Metro North. Right Place. Right Time.
July 20, 2019 by 43 Comments
Tuesday morning. 5:33 a.m. Second morning train to Grand Central.
I pause in front of the empty aisle seat. The occupant, feigning sleep, awakens immediately after my “excuse me.” He looks up the train car wondering why I hadn’t found another seat. He slides over roughly signalling displeasure. Bullsh*t.
I set my bag down onto the floor, reach down to grab my iPad, and in doing so, I clip his arm which extends into my air space. Ladies, no worries. I size up opponents carefully before jostling them. He tucks his elbow in. I settle in, with territorial boundaries established, and all parties now in their rightful places.
I catch a whiff, it lingers for a minute, it’s foul, and then it disappears. I go back to reading.
The train makes its first stop at Stamford. Doors hiss, open, passengers pass by, and there it is again. B.O. Heavy, thick B.O. This time it hangs. It can’t be me. Has to be Him. It vaporizes. It can’t be Him, otherwise it would persist. I go back to reading.
Passenger passes by, and there it is again. I glance around to locate the source and then look up, and there resting (rotting?) on the overhead rack is a large, canvas backpack. Directly over top of Him. Cigarette smoke penetrates my suit jacket, does B.O.?
Train arrives at Grand Central. I get up quickly, woosy, with vertigo, looking up after 30 minutes with head in the morning papers. I exit into the underground tunnels. Head spinning, ears ringing from the roar of the train engines, the heat, the crowds spilling down the tunnels, all swallow me whole. I step to the side out of traffic, slow my pace, take a few deep breaths and inhale a trace of urine and rancid food from garbage cans marinating overnight.
I enter Grand Central terminal, look for the Lexington Avenue exit and punch my destination into the UBER app.
I step on Lexington and cross the street to catch my ride. We take FDR Drive South, and the morning sunrise pours through the window. 21 minutes to the office.
“Would you mind if I opened the window?”
“No Sir, not at all.”
I roll the window down. I can smell, and taste the East River. The water shimmers and sparkles. The Sun warms my face. The morning breeze is refreshing, and clears the head. The world is silent but for the wheels spinning on FDR Drive. Buechner’s passage from the day before comes to mind: “we hear a whisper from the wings…you’ve turned up in the right place at the right time.”
I will remember this.
Notes: Photo via poppins-me.
Riding Uptown. In Soft Rain.
July 13, 2019 by 36 Comments
3:25 pm. I step out of 111 Wall Street, downtown Manhattan.
30 min to get to midtown. Tight.
Rain sprinkles.
Uber: “Car unavailable at this time.” Wow.
I walk up the block to the intersection. Look in all directions. No cabs. Please.
Walk up another block. Nothing.
Walk across the street. Nothing.
Walk across another street, and he rounds the corner, my right arm flies up. Bam.
“525 5th please…”
He doesn’t repeat it. Did he get it?
He has no smartphone. No GPS. No smart re-routing around traffic.
24 minutes.
No radio blaring. No TV screen behind front seat shouting ads.
No water bottle or coffee cup on console.
No crucifix on thin chain hanging from rearview mirror. No patron saint. No Jesus Saves.
No pics of loved one(s) on dash.
No ring on his finger. None on his ear or his nose.
No sunglasses on visor. No eyeglasses.
No NY Post on the seat.
No box of Kleenex or NY Mets baseball cap in door pocket.
12 min and 3 miles out. [Read more…]
Walking Cross Town. Solvitur ambulando, as they say
June 15, 2019 by 40 Comments
Thursday. Metro North train pulls into Grand Central. The morning calendar is light. I’m in no rush to get across town to the office.
I sit on the train reading Ocean Vuong’s new book: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Justin Torres’ book review: “the book is brilliant in the way it pays attention not to what our thoughts make us feel, but to what our feelings make us think.” And he’s got it exactly right.
I sip it page by page.
The train clears, and I sit alone. Train engines shut down. Air conditioning rests. I sit in silence.
I finish the chapter, with eyes skimming Vuong: “We sidestep ourselves in order to move forward.”
I tuck the iPad into my bag. I pause for another moment to enjoy the quiet.
‘Our feelings make us think…” and I feel just below the surface of the skin, the pull, it tugs, whispering: It’s time, it’s time you get back after it. You had your moment.
‘We sidesteps ourselves…’
I resist the pull for another moment, noting its strength, bordering on a Tsunami. Please, give me another moment. Just one.
I grab my bag and walk.
Instead of 47th, I walk up one block and take 48th street. Mixin’ it up a bit.
Silver Star Spa. Small door for an entrance. Chipped paint. Sketchy. “Best Asian massage in NYC.” I bet. [Read more…]
Walking Cross Town. In the Big Apple.
January 30, 2019 by 60 Comments
Second train of the morning.
Arrive at Grand Central Station.
Traders, Bankers, Morning Hawks gather at the exit.
Car door slides open and the throng spills out.
I pick up the pace. Heart’s pumping. I’m passing Suits. And accelerating.
I Pass Harvard.
I Pass Yale.
I Pass MIT.
I Pass Lori’s Princeton.
I Pass Stanford.
I Pass Prep School boys from Choate, Exeter. Deerfield Academy.
I’m in front now, shoes tapping on the marble floors, Exit 500 feet ahead.
Boy from a 1 room, 3-grade public classroom in Ootischenia. Graduate of Northern Michigan University.
I step through the double doors to exit Grand Central onto Madison.
20° F wind gust roars down 47th street, eyes flood with water.
New York City! The Big Apple. You made it!
Cold bites, tears flow, and flow. And flow.
Cross walk sign turns.
I’m alone.
In front now.
Not done yet.
Not far enough ahead.
Not yet.
Photo: The city never sleeps, Atelier Olschinsky (via this isn’t happiness)
TGIF: Wait, wait, shiver, delight.
November 30, 2018 by 19 Comments
Snoopy skating through Columbus Circle in 1987. In 2018, it was nearly 100 Years for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, a Children’s Pilgrimage of Wonder. Wait, wait, shiver, delight. (Photo by Sara Krulwich / The New York Times)
Names written in the pale sky. Names rising in the updraft amid buildings. Names silent in stone. Or cried out behind a door.
September 11, 2018 by 37 Comments
Notes:
- Post Title: From Billy Collins’ poem “The Names” dedicated to the victims of September 11 and to their survivors.
- Photo Source: New York Post, Photos on the World Trade Center Attacks.
Walking Mid Town. With Keats…
August 29, 2018 by 39 Comments
Early evening. Heat shimmers from the asphalt. I stand waiting for the Don’t Walk sign to turn…I’m three blocks from the entrance to Grand Central and my Metro North train ride home. Hulking skyscrapers, mid-town Manhattan Gods, offer shade, a welcome cover to a day that needs to end. You are spent.
And…as I stand waiting, here they come. Non consecutive lines from the Keats’ sonnet Bright Star…
The moving waters at their priestlike task…
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell
And why Keats? Why this poem? Why these lines? Why now? What algorithm upstairs decides it’s time for this? Here on 42nd Street, so far from the glacial waters of Home, so many galaxies from The Rockies, so many months from snow. Yet, and somehow, and for some reason, it’s pulled up.
I feel the pillowy softness of snow in August, and the cool melt of crystals on my tongue. And I’m swept away, miles from the cacophony of horns, engines, tourists and the sweltering August heat.
The light turns. I walk. I cross the street and the smell of fried chicken fills my lungs…I inhale deeply…tantalizing. Keats’ grip on me vaporizes. [Read more…]
