Heads – Eden
Tails – Inferno
Merry Sunday to you all! And no I did not actually flip a coin for this question but I was hoping it would attract your attention. ^_^ This question is difficult because I don’t think New York, or at least my New York, can be characterized as an Eden or inferno, good or bad, black or white, etc. My New York is gray. It’s a blend of both sides of the coin. It exhibits both the good and the bad. But that’s why I love it. It makes the city human-like.
Last year at this time I was scurrying around working on all those daunting college applications. Maybe it was the fact that we lived in a small Long Island town, but for some reason my friends were obsessed with getting out of here and I mean like going to Michigan, Tennessee, Georgia, California, etc. But I couldn’t imagine leaving New York. It always has, always will be my home. There is a certain magic about New York. It’s ability to amaze you every time you walk through her streets. It’s no joke, go to the same area of Manhattan or any borough every week and I guarantee you will see something different.
There was a piece we read in our English class earlier this semester by E.B. White called, “Here is New York” where he says, “To a New Yorker the city is both changeless and changing.” This line is so true and so beautiful because in my opinion White epitomizes the very essence of New York. As the seasons, times, people, etc. change so does New York. Times Square for instance is living proof of this. But at the heart of New York, the ideas that found it, its cultures, beliefs, etc. these will never change.
Earlier I said the city is human. In all of us is the potential to do amazing things, the potential to do good. Yet at the same time there is that little “devil” within all of us, the voice of our temptations, the source of our impulses. New York is the same way. We’ve seen the amazing things New York is capable of; unfortunately there are the other elements that make it an inferno. Such as the busy hustling, the insensitivity, the anarchy, etc.
I’ve spent my entire life here and I plan to spend the rest of it here too. I think Zohar was right on the dot in her point of taking a break, sometimes you do need to take a break and let the fires settle so New York can be your Eden again. That’s a reason why I love Long Island; it offers a sort of escape and solitude when things get out of control.
I still stand firm on my belief that New York is a blend of the two rather than one or the other. However, if I was forced to pick between the two…I would say New York is more of my Eden. There is a magic and beauty here that one can seldom find elsewhere.
