"I'll always love you, though, New York..."

Without being sac-religous, my "holy trinity" of music consists of Counting Crows, Bruce Springsteen, and Ryan Adams. I won't ascribe any deity to any of these people or try and figure where each one fits in a "father, son, holy ghost" sort of way, but let's just say that they're all equal in my eyes and each one brings something different to the table. The title of this post comes straight from a Ryan Adams' song called "New York, New York" and I was constantly singing the first line of the song in my head over and over while I was in the city.

"Well I shuffled through the city on the fourth of July, like a firecracker waiting to blow."

And that's how Ryan's song begins. And that's how Davina and I were the five days we were there. Basically, trying to fit it all in, trying to see everything. It's very hard for me to take you through our trip because there was just so much that we did. We hit the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero, 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building, Central Park, Soho, Grennwhich Village, the Upper West Side, Queens (on accident), Times Square, "Rent", St. Patrick's Cathedral, we even attended the Latin-American heritage festival (on accident).

Davina had never been to New York before and had always wanted to go. This trip had been in the works for over a year and we finally decided that we had to do it now because once the baby got here, travel would be limited for awhile. I had been twice before and I was anxious to show Davina what I loved about the city, but also make sure she saw the high points that everyone needs to see when they go to New York. We flew into JFK late on Thursday night and on Friday we spent the whole afternoon in Central Park. She kept saying that it was weird to be here because she had seen it movies so many times. I thought the same thing the first time I was there when I was sixteen. I felt like I was in a movie.

The next day we hit the Statue and Ellis Island. The one thing about New York that I had never noticed until this time was that we were the racial minority in the city. I think New York captures what our country is and what it was built on. We are a country of immigrants. That's how we were formed, that's where our strength is. That's our character. It's our diversity that seperates us from the radicals that have warred against us since we were first formed. We're quick to demand that the illegals be thrown out, but is this not what seperates us from the closed mindedness of fundamentalists; a chance at something better? I think it is and I think we have to think about people instead of policy when we make our judgements.

Over the next few days, we spent time in the Village, Little Italy, we walked on the Brooklyn Bridge at night and went to the observation deck of the Empire State Building at dusk. We saw "Rent" which summed up a fallen world without grace without even meaning to. And on Tuesday morning when it was time to go, we didn't want to leave.

I don't know if I can describe New York at all using words. It's sort of how I felt each time I've been there and stood in the canyons of buildings all around me. It overloads your senses and it brings back memories of people and characters that I've read about and listened to and I see New York how they see it. I see Joe Dimaggio in the golden age of baseball, being the face of America and the personification of New York. I see Willa Cather's character, Paul, from "Paul's Case" as he lives out his fantasy looking out over Central Park and the snow right before he steps in front of a train because that dream is disappearing. I see the family from John Irving's "The Hotel New Hampshire" finally settling in Manhattan after a time of sadness in Germany. I see Jay Gatsby coming into the city preparing for one of his parties on the East Egg. I hear Ryan Adams' singing that he'll always love New York and I understand why. And Sprinsteen, even though he's Jersey through and through, I know why he's "meeting across the river". Because that's where it is...that's where the opportunity is, the life is, that's the center of the world the moment you're there and it feels like you are in the middle of everything. "New York, New York".