Remembering New York

I've come and gone from New York a lot in the past week, and the presence of my younger brother has been an additional refresher to the city.  The trip to Washington DC made me love coming back to the city, the walks through Central Park and Prospect Park through the fall leaves have made me realize the natural beauty that coexists with the millions of people tightly crammed here, and the return from a weekend in Burlington, Vermont has reminded me of how much I love the activity here, the many possibilities, the people and diversity.  It is an exciting place to live.  Jazz combos and steel drummers in the subways, the faint small of pizza in the train station, a person succinctly announcing his intention to get off the train to get people to move out of the way.  It's good to keep coming back.

It has also been great to see new things in the past week.  My brother and I went to the Metropolitan Art Museum and in the midst of a quest to discover what is valuable in education, I was reminded of the creativity, reflection, history, philosophy that is embedded in the the visual arts throughout the history of humanity.  This was such an important part of my education, of learning to reflect on the inner world and possibilities of expression in myself and others.  It is not the world of test-taking and point giving.  There is something very rich in it.  And I would like to share this richness, this sense of empathy and inter-reflectivity with my students.  What do you hear, what do you feel?  How and why did another create such a thing?

And the natural world of trees.  Vermont, the Green Mountain state.  The branches were mostly bare but still holy and cathedral-like, framing the setting sun over Lake Champlain. It was a reminder that in most lives, in most lands and waters, there is a stillness in which I do not live.  I live in a land of people, of heavy footfalls and places to be; of forward and direct rather than exploratory and free. 

 

But it is good to be back here because it still feels so unique and special, so important.  There will likely be a time in my life where I will no longer live in the center of the peopled world and will feel even more comfortable living in a new center for it having been there.  There may be a time when I exchange art museums and huge parks for expanses of forest and large lakes, local crafts and cheeses.  But for now, I'm happy to be here and happy to have the reminders of it.