The Nature of the City

Today was a pilgrimage kind of day. I started out walking east along 14th Street in hopes of catching the Smithson Floating Island . (For more info visit the Whitney link which has more links and info.)
That's when I came across jelly beans and cigarette butts in the sidewalk - which struck me as visually beautiful on the one hand, and an interesting composition of poisons, age and innocence on the other.

When I got to the river at 14th Street, it was a mass of chain link fence surrounding construction, but I didn't have the energy to head down to Houston, so turned and headed north instead. Just as I did, I caught a glimpse of Floating Island through the chain link until it disappeared behind a mass of metal and construction vehicles on its northward route.
It was one of those divine moments. I had heard that one could expect to wait an hour or two for a sighting, and when I saw all the construction I figured it might not be in the cards for me today. Then as I headed a bit further north, I discovered a wonderful part of the riverside that has been refurbished south of 23rd Street. And the beauty of these pockmarked tiles, corroding into organic designs far more interesting than their original newness.


As I sat to await the return of the trees, I caught a complete dance of the barge and two tugs as the installation manuevered its way to head back down the East River.
I was really struck by the feeling of nature in the city: the water, the wind, and of course those trees floating by. The air was so clean today and smelled of ocean brine. The park closer to 23rd smelled hot and dusty like the desert; a fertile heat that reminds me of the big sky and sagebrush of the southwest.
Its amazing to have that kind of scent memory button pushed when you're in the middle - or the outer perimeter - of a major metropolitan city.
I buried my face in a stand of yellow plants just before noticing that the blossoms were filled with bees. And then stood transfixed for quite a while watching them.



Then I discovered this impossible little beach just below the concrete, inaccessible to all but eye.

Wandering my way back to the apartment across 23rd Street I was struck by the unexpected calm and quiet that comes over me after a hike in the woods. I'd been with the trees, earth, water and sky and hadn't even left the city. I'd barely even left the neighborhood.