Lost

Yesterday, I did something completely uncharacteristic. I wandered out into Lower Manhattan and,  quite literally, got lost in New York. No map and no orientation, I twisted and turned through randomly angled streets. I simply walked towards each successive point of interest like a moth seeking increasingly brighter flames. Wandering down Wall Street, through Battery City, Tribeca, and China Town I soaked up the atmosphere. That first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty as I emerged from the trees in Battery Park causing a quick inhalation. Imagining how many people, have seen that same site and known they had arrived in America. A sentiment I've heard a million times but somehow feels different when the view is presented in reality. Wandering down the streets seeing caricatures and then realizing that they weren't caricatures but their basis in reality. Ground Zero, striking not for what's there but what isn't. A giant gaping wound in the city begging to be filled. Surrounded by barbed wire and stern warnings. Surprise at a cemetery directly across the street. An ancient lot surrounded by a foreboding wrought iron fence. Tribeca with its trendy moms, kids and dogs in tow. Leagues of treadmill fanatics walking nowhere in storefront gyms.

The city seems to be in a constantly teetering on the brink of collapse. Trash piled in black plastic mountains on every street. Buildings encased in permanent cocoons of scaffolding. A gray pallor on everything as if the smog grew tired of floating and settled down to earth. Vendors on every corner selling fruit and fake purses. Activity everywhere and no one seemingly bothered by any of it. Most amazingly, an exciting, thriving city in which none of this is negative or positive but rather, simply is.