Notions Of Change

NYC, Days 3 and 4

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Day 3

Today was another big walking day. I had a work related meeting with two lovely ladies and was to meet them on Broadway near Times Square, so I decided to leave early enough to have time to walk through Central Park on the way there. It was beautiful! The architectural features of some of the park structures are masterful. And having a natural area in the middle of a metropolis is genius.

Following lunch in a Japanese tea house called Radiance (definitely recommend), it was time to head to Times Square to purchase discount Broadway tickets from the Theatre Development Fund’s TKTS booth. I scored tickets to Matilda, at fifty percent off, after a chilly forty-five minute wait. So worth it to see my first ever Broadway production! (Sooo many more people in the square on a Thursday than on Tuesday!)Continue Reading

NYC, Day 2

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Today was another absolutely fantastic day. Though the morning started off with the dulcet sounds of teenage girls screaming at each other and their mom (grateful I don’t have to deal with that on a daily basis), I headed over to bakery Le Pain Quotidien for breakfast. It was delicious—absolutely recommend this place.

First thing on the itinerary was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (When you go, keep in mind the suggested amount for admission is $25, but you can choose to give however much your budget allows. It’s an all day/multiple day/week long experience.) I LOVED it and managed to pack in most of the museum between 10:30am and 4:30pm, but it was a push sometimes. And the art featured is from all around the world, from Africa to the Middle East to Asia to North and South America.

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New York City, Day 1

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*Note: Since I’m traveling, these posts are only lightly edited for obvious spelling errors. It’s more important to experience the trip than to edit thoroughly, so hopefully you can forgive the bloopers!*

Well, the first part of this adventure has commenced! The day started at 4AM and I wouldn’t trade it—along with travel meals consisting of airline peanuts, pretzels, and a Kind bar—for anything in the world.

On the plane between Minneapolis and JFK, my awesome row-mate, Tom, and I discussed the finer details of New York’s history and appeal, editing, and being a closet writer (which he is). A New Yorker from birth, Tom agreed that folks wanting to experience the city as it truly is should not only focus on the major attractions but also walk around a good deal. Here are some of his suggestions for things to do, besides the obvious ones like Times Square:

  • Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan and grab a slice of what he called the best pizza known to man.
  • Take a walking tour through Free Tours by Foot, which he said are some of most informative in the city.
  • For bookworms like me, check out the Strand Bookstore. Multiple stories of stacked books, ripe for the picking.
  • Take the Staten Island Ferry, a free service that takes visitors past the Statue of Liberty.

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Unless we are very, very careful, we doom each other by holding onto images of one another based on preconceptions that are in turn based on indifference to what is other than ourselves. This indifference can be, in its extreme, a form of murder and seems to me a rather common phenomenon. We claim autonomy for ourselves and forget that in so doing we can fall into the tyranny of defining other people as we would like them to be. By focusing on what we choose to acknowledge in them, we impose an insidious control on them. I notice that I have to pay careful attention in order to listen to others with an openness that allows them to be as they are, or as they think themselves to be. The shutters of my mind habitually flip open and click shut, and these little snaps form into patterns I arrange for myself. The opposite of this inattention is love, is the honoring of others in a way that grants them the grace of their own autonomy and allows mutual discovery.

~ Anne Truitt

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