Saturday, April 09, 2016
Morning walk, Stockbridge ...
Posted by Don at 4/09/2016 0 comments
Labels: #Stockbridge
Thursday, September 05, 2013
Quiet
This spring, I left Harlem at 125th Street on Metro North "Hudson" Line and rode the train to Poughkeepsie. Since it was early Saturday morning, there were only a couple of people in the car as we rolled along the Hudson River, quickly leaving the city behind. The tracks are built at the river's edge along its eastern bank, and soon, and as we glided along, and I had a private view out of the large glass windows, I began to imagine Henry Hudson and his crew when they first sailed up this river. By the time I arrived at Poughkeepsie, I was in the mild bliss I usually feel as soon as I see the high banks, massive river and the hills proceeding from it.
Posted by Don at 9/05/2013 0 comments
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Perfect Day
Sean the dog and I walked with our dear friends on our regular Saturday morning walk in the northern end of Central Park. It is our Saturday morning tradition, meeting in Harlem with our terriers, and walking the ten blocks or so to the Harlem Meer corner of the park.
Posted by Don at 4/14/2012 0 comments
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Beautiful Day
As their empire edged closer to extinction, the Hesychasts and the humanists became often bitter ideological enemies, in a spectacular clash of values and beliefs that frequently spilled over into politics. It was not a simple situation, and much of the time there was no clearly marked lines of separation between the factions. There was much common ground. Both were patriots who wished to save Byzantium and its heritage. The question, inevitably, became which heritage, classical or Christian, and at what price? With tragic inexorability, the antagonists came to act as if the price of survival for one tradition must be the death of the other. -- p. 45
Posted by Don at 7/05/2009 3 comments
Labels: New York City
Friday, July 03, 2009
The High Line
Partner and I took an early morning walk to checkout this great new park in our neighborhood.
Walking above traffic, this is a much quieter passage for pedestrians. This spur shows how hard the designers worked to keep everything looking natural.
This amphitheater is where the highline crosses 10th Avenue. Glass plates were installed to allow pedestrians to sit and look up 10th Avenue. It sounds odd, but most New Yorkers do not look around when they are walking at street level. They are mostly moving while trying to avoid other pedestrians, bicyclists, automobile traffic, skateboarders and other potential dangers.
This is at the W. 20th St. Exit looking east on W. 20th. General Seminary is on the left side of the block.
This is where the park ends. Work will continue north between W. 20th St. and W. 30th St. There is some possibility that the extension between W. 30th and W. 34th will be included, but it is caught between the MTA and private developers who are planning a major development over the westside railroad yards.
Posted by Don at 7/03/2009 1 comments
Labels: New York City, Public Gardens, The High Line
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Transitions...
So I quit writing. I got tired of reading what I was writing. Partner was in Seminary for three years. We moved to New York for that, and I started a new job here. We left our home in Wynnedale (in Indy) for basically a two room apartment with a small kitchen, bathroom and one clothes closet in NYC.
I am not sure I ever realized it was ok to enjoy living here. Everything was so temporary at the time, so different. Now we are entering a new period ... partner will be starting a new job soon, my job responsibilities may be changing, and we may be moving within the City.
The preacher at his ordination preached on being a deacon -- we are all called by our baptismal vow to diaconal service to others -- and transitional -- we would like to think that life is about arriving and settling, but it really is about movement and change, and he encouraged us to embrace the unsettling, boring and uncomfortable.
I've thought about that as we start the next period of our lives, and realize more and more that life itself is not something that is infinite but very finite.
While the year 2000 didn't really feel that much different than the year 1999,I think it is becoming quite clear that by July 2009 we are leaving the 20th Century behind in the sense that everything is subject to being quite different than it used to be.
The 20th Century was full of change (cars, cell phones, man on the moon). But even as we drag all our 20th century experiences into this new period, feeling oh so not hip or cool or cutting edge, we have some obligation to note what it is like to live here and now. Not the royal we here, but rather the folk who write and think about our lives.
I feel a little like the voices in the Monty Python skit who make up outrageous stories about what they did when they were children (when I was a child we were so poor we lived in a shoe box in the middle of the road and licked peoples boots as they walked by followed up by the line, try telling that to people now days, they don't believe you).
It has been raining this afternoon in New York City. The holiday weekend started in early afternoon. Two friends on Facebook refer to the loss of their long-time pets. Another friend is getting a marriage license in CT and will soon legally marry his partner. I am going to General Convention in Anaheim next week. I doubt if I will ever be a twitterer or a tweeterer.
Posted by Don at 7/02/2009 0 comments
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Still the best...
Shelley continues to illuminate the beauty of the world, particularly the Missouri Botanical Garden, at her Missouri Green site.
Posted by Don at 4/30/2009 1 comments