Love in the Time of Kitsch

Day1:  26, 2010

It was a long and arduous journey filled with many trials and tribulations (okay, it really wasn’t. But I needed an epic beginning to my tale; at least it wasn’t a dark and stormy night). However, in the early evening we soared in from the skies and into the giant sublime city which quickly transformed into an explosion of picturesque urban pastiche.

To view the city as a hub for the “human experiment” is certainly not an understatement. This was understood from the moment our group left La Guardia airport by way of shuttle.

Our shuttle driver would be personified as a calm storm – if he would be personified for the purposes of writing a dramatic blog, that is. Better yet, we found ourselves in the belly of the Great White Whale and Captain Ahab was leading us to certain doom! Images upon images began to flow in from the windows and continued to burn their presence into the hippocampus as they branched out into momentary multiple universes with each moment traveled. Surely there is a story for each image. A story for every glance, every scene, every smile, every stoop, every molecule within conceivable thought. (maybe even beyond!)

Listen:

Lovers holding hands, tourists looking lost, shop-owners sitting in canvas-chairs on the sidewalk, children making the city their playground, rushed adults late for work, the Bartlebys of the world, the Radio Raheems of the world, the Joe Bucks of the world, and so on and so on into eternity.  

Uprooted from my border-city and plunged into the crossroads of human existence the ride to our hotel on the Upper West Side was an overstimulation of the senses.  

The phrase “stranger in a strange land” echoed around in my thoughts, reverberating until it finally revealed that we’re all strangers from time-to-time.  Maybe that’s a side effect of life.

After a brief check-in at the hotel I wandered into a wonderful Café on Columbus and ordered a delightful looking vegetarian burger to go. As I sat down with a couple of my friends in Theodore Roosevelt Park I had a moment to finally let more of the images sink in and grab hold of me.  People were out and about, walking their dogs, heading to unknown destinations, running across streets, enjoying lunch in the park. Wait, that last one was me!

Later on the entire class met for drinks at the George Keeley’s bar on Amsterdam. With over so many beers on tap, many of us welcomed our first full night in New York City in proper fashion, joining the well-known and entertaining David Gates in New York revelry. (These were certainly no dead wall reveries).

On the walk back to the hotel room I found myself ruminating on the purpose of this trip. Would I truly be participating in the great experiment of co-existence? I look forward to the future and walking upon the various sections of the city; maybe grabbing the occasional whiff of humanity.

***

E.B. White

was Right.

Writing’s no fun.

(That’s all, I’m done).