I am the City Dweller
“I am one…
“I am love…
“I am home…”
So ended my unexpected jaunt through the city streets this afternoon. Though it was not in my immediate plan, when I saw how beautiful the day had turned out, I ventured out on a longer than intended stroll to streets and places I’d not been by before. It was then that I came across the lines above and found them to be ripe for writing about. They spoke to me, or rather to the inner being that I sometimes visit within myself when I find beauty in every-day things.
The quote is straight from the tall, majestic windows at ABC Carpet & Home off Park Avenue and Broadway by 19th street. ABC is a New York-based furniture, textiles and fabric shop. However if you are fortunate enough to be able to walk up and down the many brilliantly exotic and welcoming aisles full of beautiful intricate and unique items for your life and home, you’ll agree that the store’s description is sorely lacking. Prior to finding that little gem among pearls, I’d simply been doing a bit of my much loved aimless mid-afternoon walking to stretch the limbs and entertain the eyes. It is during these walks that I encounter the kinds of faces and features only a metropolis as distinct and chaotic as this one can offer you.
A wrong turn, and I call it such simply because it was unusual but never unwelcome, landed me in a new park today. The overlapping confusion of streets and avenues during the height of people traffic on warm, sunny days allowed me to stumble upon Madison Square Park. I entered it with great zeal because the novelty always intrigues me. In it I found a few construction workers perched high above on cranes working on tall bowing trees building what I recognized immediately to be several tree houses. I was transported back to the “Brady Bunch” episode where Bobby falls from the tree house of his brother Peter’s friends, causing the other members to make fun of him and causing the fallen Bobby to fear heights. All TV traumas are solved in the allotted 30- to 60-minute program schedule, but here I noticed that much work and time had been involved in creating these perfectly replicated tree houses and I wondered why. Then a sign came into full view proclaiming the Children’s Fall Arts Festival 2008 and the familiar A-ha came to me. I see that the tree houses are really art pieces and instead of houses they’re called huts and are part of a traveling art exhibit passing through town. I read a bit about the art and how it is called Tadashi Kawamata Tree Huts. Hmm, that’s a little more NYC and a little less Brady.
In this park, a middle-of-nowhere food kiosk, with a futuristic build, draws in an impressive line of people. This unique steel-clad, ivy-covered erected piece of architecture is so interesting! I wonder what they sell? I wonder why moms pushing strollers, concerned business men reading the Wall Street Journal and students balancing textbooks are willing to stand in the hot sun filtering through the vanishing tree leaves like they’re waiting to ride a coaster at Great Adventure. I look up and see the name: The Shake Shack. I am not about to stand on that line for food, but I am still interested in knowing what the big attraction is. I make my way around and glance at the menu posted in the glass windows for all to see. Nothing jumps out at me, just you run-of-the-mill menu of frozen custard, shakes, Shack burgers, Chicago hotdogs and mushroom burgers. It must be some damn good food. Otherwise how do you explain a line like this in the middle of a city like this where every five feet you can have your choice of palate enticing tastes from all over the globe? I don’ get it, so I shrug my shoulders and continue walking. Maybe one day…
Like a baby with a short attention span, something else catches my eye right away. A couple of dog walkers, females, surrounded by 7 stunning pure bred dogs, all beautifully groomed and all playing nicely together. I recognize the breeds as a Westie, a Husky, a Beagle, a Retriever, a Poodle, a Yorkie and a Pomeranian. Their various shapes, sizes and colors make them all the more interesting. Small kids are flocking toward the gang of pups, only to stop short right before petting them. Their sense of danger is on high alert, so they look back to get their moms' approvals. The walkers are protective of their charges and try to dissuade the band of kids from petting the animals. Despite the momentary encounter, the girls are smiling and laughing. They are all darkly tanned and glowing on their legs and shoulders. They seem so content and I can tell the dogs are happy, too. Except for the poopy part, I think I would love to walk about the town all day, pups in tow.
The passion readers are out today. Books abound in the spread-open manner of the intrigued and enthralled bookworm. I notice that just about every place on the circular benches is full. I totally get it! How can anyone stand to be indoors all day in that rancid, fluorescent existence of office life when there is so much beauty in everything you see and touch?
It is just about the moment when the thought of the office leaves my mind that I pass by the swung open doors of ABC Carpet & Home. The scents draw me in first, but the countless artsy pieces, stunning fabrics, textures, statues and styles, the unique chandeliers lighting my path, the funky lamps and the purposely presented serene scenarios, the fountains and set-up in the whole of that magically place make me linger.
When I leave, exiting through the same welcoming doors that now bid me farewell, I glance around knowing full well that one day I will walk in there armed with the money to buy what I want and not give it a second thought. And then something tells me to glance behind me and that is when I see their windows, done up in simple white letters with short beautiful words that stir me without explanation…
“I am one…
“I am love…
“I am home…”
“I am love…
“I am home…”
So ended my unexpected jaunt through the city streets this afternoon. Though it was not in my immediate plan, when I saw how beautiful the day had turned out, I ventured out on a longer than intended stroll to streets and places I’d not been by before. It was then that I came across the lines above and found them to be ripe for writing about. They spoke to me, or rather to the inner being that I sometimes visit within myself when I find beauty in every-day things.
The quote is straight from the tall, majestic windows at ABC Carpet & Home off Park Avenue and Broadway by 19th street. ABC is a New York-based furniture, textiles and fabric shop. However if you are fortunate enough to be able to walk up and down the many brilliantly exotic and welcoming aisles full of beautiful intricate and unique items for your life and home, you’ll agree that the store’s description is sorely lacking. Prior to finding that little gem among pearls, I’d simply been doing a bit of my much loved aimless mid-afternoon walking to stretch the limbs and entertain the eyes. It is during these walks that I encounter the kinds of faces and features only a metropolis as distinct and chaotic as this one can offer you.
A wrong turn, and I call it such simply because it was unusual but never unwelcome, landed me in a new park today. The overlapping confusion of streets and avenues during the height of people traffic on warm, sunny days allowed me to stumble upon Madison Square Park. I entered it with great zeal because the novelty always intrigues me. In it I found a few construction workers perched high above on cranes working on tall bowing trees building what I recognized immediately to be several tree houses. I was transported back to the “Brady Bunch” episode where Bobby falls from the tree house of his brother Peter’s friends, causing the other members to make fun of him and causing the fallen Bobby to fear heights. All TV traumas are solved in the allotted 30- to 60-minute program schedule, but here I noticed that much work and time had been involved in creating these perfectly replicated tree houses and I wondered why. Then a sign came into full view proclaiming the Children’s Fall Arts Festival 2008 and the familiar A-ha came to me. I see that the tree houses are really art pieces and instead of houses they’re called huts and are part of a traveling art exhibit passing through town. I read a bit about the art and how it is called Tadashi Kawamata Tree Huts. Hmm, that’s a little more NYC and a little less Brady.
In this park, a middle-of-nowhere food kiosk, with a futuristic build, draws in an impressive line of people. This unique steel-clad, ivy-covered erected piece of architecture is so interesting! I wonder what they sell? I wonder why moms pushing strollers, concerned business men reading the Wall Street Journal and students balancing textbooks are willing to stand in the hot sun filtering through the vanishing tree leaves like they’re waiting to ride a coaster at Great Adventure. I look up and see the name: The Shake Shack. I am not about to stand on that line for food, but I am still interested in knowing what the big attraction is. I make my way around and glance at the menu posted in the glass windows for all to see. Nothing jumps out at me, just you run-of-the-mill menu of frozen custard, shakes, Shack burgers, Chicago hotdogs and mushroom burgers. It must be some damn good food. Otherwise how do you explain a line like this in the middle of a city like this where every five feet you can have your choice of palate enticing tastes from all over the globe? I don’ get it, so I shrug my shoulders and continue walking. Maybe one day…
Like a baby with a short attention span, something else catches my eye right away. A couple of dog walkers, females, surrounded by 7 stunning pure bred dogs, all beautifully groomed and all playing nicely together. I recognize the breeds as a Westie, a Husky, a Beagle, a Retriever, a Poodle, a Yorkie and a Pomeranian. Their various shapes, sizes and colors make them all the more interesting. Small kids are flocking toward the gang of pups, only to stop short right before petting them. Their sense of danger is on high alert, so they look back to get their moms' approvals. The walkers are protective of their charges and try to dissuade the band of kids from petting the animals. Despite the momentary encounter, the girls are smiling and laughing. They are all darkly tanned and glowing on their legs and shoulders. They seem so content and I can tell the dogs are happy, too. Except for the poopy part, I think I would love to walk about the town all day, pups in tow.
The passion readers are out today. Books abound in the spread-open manner of the intrigued and enthralled bookworm. I notice that just about every place on the circular benches is full. I totally get it! How can anyone stand to be indoors all day in that rancid, fluorescent existence of office life when there is so much beauty in everything you see and touch?
It is just about the moment when the thought of the office leaves my mind that I pass by the swung open doors of ABC Carpet & Home. The scents draw me in first, but the countless artsy pieces, stunning fabrics, textures, statues and styles, the unique chandeliers lighting my path, the funky lamps and the purposely presented serene scenarios, the fountains and set-up in the whole of that magically place make me linger.
When I leave, exiting through the same welcoming doors that now bid me farewell, I glance around knowing full well that one day I will walk in there armed with the money to buy what I want and not give it a second thought. And then something tells me to glance behind me and that is when I see their windows, done up in simple white letters with short beautiful words that stir me without explanation…
“I am one…
“I am love…
“I am home…”
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