Friday, June 22, 2001


yesterday i received a note asking me to write about new york. and i'm always happy to oblige, although it might be slightly off topic! or perhaps it could fall under my attempts to practice joyful appreciation!

i was born in kansas, haved lived in santa fe, baltimore, washington dc, soujourned in europe. i love california, both north and south. but i still can't imagine leaving new york. i do love it so.

this is what is great about new york. every single one of us who lives in the city dwells in a separate but interlocking set of little villages. yet we all meet together in the experience of new york. and we love new york, be it bouyantly or disappointedly.

imagine if we each could find the new york the others know. it would seem like a different city, and a different time. there is a new scene everyday, to paraphrase heraclitus.

somewhere in new york is a place for everyone, either in competitive eat-grandma day new york, or in alt-lifestyle night new york. all you have to do is come, survive the initial shock of the rent, and then glory in all this freedom.

the instant you arrive and learn how to read the subway map you're one of us and we love you -- altho' we probably don't have much time to meet you! to be a new yorker you only have step your foot over the hudson, close your eyes, and wish to be one.

what happens to you in new york depends on what you can do -- so work hard -- or who you know -- so go out and meet people. at times new york seems quiet, or seems to reject you; you think you're standing alone, going nowhere. then the magic happens for you once again.

in the end, no matter who we live with, we're all married to new york. take my advice: as soon as the recession ends, get as much money as you can and join us here!

yesterday was a hot muggy day in new york; as i walked home from the subway i saw all the people, drooping in their summer clothes, swimming in flashes of sunshine that suddenly pierced through oyster-colored clouds and then withdrew. so many different kinds of people, from literally every country in the world! all looked so beautiful to me, their flushed faces, their hair damp around the ears. who are they? where are they going?

was one of them you?

posted by fortune | 11:53 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments