The Arts in New York City

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.

Some folks like to get away,

Take a holiday from the neighborhood.

Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood

But I’m takin’ a Greyhound on the Hudson River line.

I’m in a New York state of mind.

-Billy Joel

New York enchants me.  Yet it ticks me the heck off.  Living here is something no one would understand unless he were here. New York isn’t any one movie we watched in class, or any one play we read.  It is a conglomerate of the experiences we have and share here, something that is unique to each individual.  And here’s mine.

I’ve spent the majority of my last 12 years of life in New York City–the five boroughs of it, not just Manhattan–and I can honestly say that I see something new of it at least every week, if not every day.  That’s what I find amazing and beautiful about it, that there’s just so much you can see, hear, smell, do, and you still would not have experienced it all.  In a way, I still walk around like a tourist, taking pictures and doing “tourist-y” things like walking around Central Park and going to Times Square, because after so many years, this city still enchants me.  There’s just something romantic and captivating about walking around Manhattan at night, about standing on an NYC rooftop and watching the sun set.  I can’t explain that magic in words, it’s just something you have to experience.  An Eden on planet Earth.

But it’s just so hard to be here.  You can try your hardest to get used to living here, but nothing, nothing, makes the feeling of missing your family go away.  I try not to think about it because the more I do, the sadder I get.  But when it comes down to it, my highest priority in life is my family, and living without them has tinted my New York City experience: it makes it hard to love New York as much as I want to.  I envy my little cousins in Israel who are best friends because they have grown up together since birth, and wish I could be a part of that.  And a message to all: never, ever, take visiting your grandparents for granted, because to some it is such a limited opportunity.

New York City is the inferno that’s been holding me back from that, my family bonding.  But then again, is it NYC’s fault?  If I had been living in a different city in the U.S. would I still feel the same? Perhaps.  How about another city in the world? Could be.  But to me that’s irrelevant, because the fact is that I’m here.

Otherwise, New York is an inferno of a commute.  You want a car?  Pay for parking…everywhere–and double anything you’d pay anywhere.  Miss your meter by a minute?  Ticket.  Highway?  Traffic.  Service road?  Traffic.  Perhaps I should take public transportation?  Leave your house an hour early, bus only shows up a half hour later.  Wait for the train, and be told belatedly that it isn’t running and you should take the alternative (the one that’s twice as long of course).  Does New York City care that you have your first Arts in NYC class and that your professor requested that you be in class on time? Nope.  Does NYC care that your friend’s been waiting for you an hour at the Met already? Nope.  Isn’t it nice to have NYC commute to blame for it all?  Sure. Does it change the fact that you’re in an inferno of a commute?  Sure as heck, nope.

So New York is an appealing place for me to be living–there’s just so much that I want to take in, and I never feel that I’m lacking in things to take in.  But it’s hard, and there are few people who can or will disagree with that.  But hey, nobody said life would be easy.  I just try to remember to take it easy, and to take it slow when I need to, even when the city is telling me otherwise.  And when the going gets too tough, I escape.  Escape the inferno enough to be able to calm down, and come back and see New York as my Eden again.  Boston at night on a building rooftop with people you love, the Charles River water flowing through, it’s enough.  Just take that deep breath, relax, and finally be able to come back to New York and see it as my Eden again.

View of the Charles River, Boston. Fall 2011