This Is New York

This Is New York
M. Sasek ~ W.H. Allen, 1960

Woke up this morning thinking about what book to review to honor this day, and though this wasn't my first thought, it certainly is a happy one. As one of the millions and millions and millions of people who have answered the siren call that is New York, I'd like to think that even for a brief moment I added to its positive energy, its fearlessness, its awesomeness. Even though I only lived there a decade and it has almost been that long since I left, going back with my son now, I still parade him around as if I own the place. Sharing each little corner, each memory with him as if I alone hold the key to the city's magic.

Well, we all know, that's not the case, but still... New York has this way of making you feel like you're one in a million. Blessed and lucky to have it loving you as much as you love it. These days for me, New York is the ultimate ex-boyfriend.

It was on that day, 9/11/01 that our breakup began. It was slow and took several months... but in those days and weeks following the collapse of One World Trade Center, snuggled underneath the sheets in my apartment on 16th street, smelling the air of burnt plastic... listening to the fighter jets circle overhead... I wished I was anywhere else in the world and planned my escape accordingly. I wept every night, not just because of what had happened down the street from my office, but because I knew it was over. I knew I was no longer young and free and that the world was different and that I was meant for bigger things than Broadway and fame and New York City... things like books and babies and real life and Texas.

Even though this book was published before the Towers went up, their absence here to me means more than just inconvenient timing. To that end, I salute New York today. How it rocked us all in its bosom that day and set us gently to sleep even as we dreamt of fire and death and fear. How it was and always will be for me, the one who got away.








New York is the largest city in the Western Hemisphere and it is full of the biggest things.

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This Is Texas