My New York
State of Mind: Snapshots
GREEN: All around. Spring foliage shouting overpowering green-ness, a refreshing
sight to these sore eyes coming from a grey and brown drought-ridden city.
Commencement at Columbia University: a vast sea of euphoria among powder
blue-clad graduates and proud family members, few dry eyes among us. The
speeches encouraging graduates to go forth and make this world a better place
spoke to all present. I felt a graduate once more, eager to do grand things
with my days. (In October I’ll be attending the 50th reunion of my
Berkeley class!)
Metromania: Descending the stairs into the mouth of the monster, the
pervasive odor of metal, humidity, rotting garbage and urine and the rhythmic
clackety-clackety-clack invade my senses. Read the signs, find the blue line,
the R car, “stand clear of the closing doors”, scramble out to find the red
line, up the stairs, cross the hallway, down the uptown stairs to the opposite
platform, wait for the number 2 express and watch for rats scouring the tracks,
then transfer at Times Square to the yellow line, get off at 14th
Street, find the southwest exit. Uptown, downtown, across town, our days are
constant movement. At night faint rumblings from that subterranean world ease
us into sleep in our basement apartment.
Grand Central Station at six p.m.: a maze of humanity, a swarming
anthill, crisscrossing, colliding, hurrying-hurrying and, in the midst, bewildered
me searching for a U.S. mailbox.
Garbage: Shocking and discouraging was the sight of the mountains of
non recyclable garbage produced at The Shake Shack where we dined in Grand
Central’s food court. Add to that the garbage from the thousands of fast food
enterprises and one wonders if home recycling can ever make a difference.
Parks: Central and Riverside Parks and community gardens are green,
leafy gems inserted throughout the city providing respite to us, the birds and
the squirrels. We spot blue jays, robin redbreasts and bright cardinals who
treat us to their song – a walk in the woods – in the city.
