New York - City Thought

Lady Liberty, standing tall, torch blazing in the morning sun. An impressive sight backed by the tallest buildings of the time. You can only imagine what a relieving if not awe inspiring sight that would have been to immigrants all those years ago. And that’s what New York is all about right? A place where the minorities go to become the majority.

Different backgrounds, different jobs, different lifestyles; and yet they all feel at home. Maybe they’re polite and kind in recognition of their differences, different backgrounds to people with different lifestyles, lifestyles to race, race to religion – since they know ‘normal’ people could and will give them trouble. A sort of city-wide sympathy for those in the same position. Maybe they’re just polite and kind since they want a tip.
Which is more reliable? What does it matter?

Thing is, a lot of people live in New York. A lot of different people. You’re bound to find someone you can be friends with. We did, we were lucky. They were lovely people. They took us in and they showed us around and they did everything right by us and asked for nothing but our time in return. I would gladly return everything and more should they make it to Australia one day! It all started off by turning an awkward party into a not so awkward one. ‘If anybody asks us, we’re together!’ Any city is better if you have friends. It’s like having lived a life in that place and already knowing the best places to go and eat and look at.

There were a few things that got to me. New York is a good place to visit since it’s so good to get around in. Written across the landscape in a grid, built up on a small island, subways in a lot of places and buses if we ever learnt to use them. The bad thing is that it feels so business-like. It’s all streamlined so you can get to work and spend your money and go home and use the things you spent the money on that you earned at work. Fine for somebody visiting who simply experiences things, but it almost seems like there would be no experience for anyone commuting in that city. I don’t know if I like that. Central Park is a saving grace though. You can tell it’s man-made and styled and designed, but for someone who needs a few trees now and then, it does its job.

You might laugh at liberty, you might laugh that it has anything to do with the man selling fruit on the corner or sitting by his roach-coach or simply sitting and watching the world walk past, but that’s what Liberty is. It’s feeling at home, doing what you can do if not what you want to do. It’s doing it in a place where you’re not often persecuted, if only for the fact that everyone else is in the same boat as you. Maybe they came on the same boat as you. It’s New York.