to be a New York Philosopher...

Though writing is the silent art and how I wish the writer had what the musician had, it is that silence that lets the words return to us, and take their turn, and turn our attention.

"My Sad Self" by Ginsberg is an extraordinary work that I keep returning to. Each time I read it, each time I think about it, I am more amazed at how well he really understood New York City, and how well he understood the way locations connect to who we are.

I have not gotten to Ginsberg's level yet. I mean that I don't look out to the places I've lived through from just one location. Not that I wouldn't actually go to the RCA building, which is now known as the Top of the Rock. I actually revisit my old places, and I do this primarily because they aren't old to me yet.

One day I will find the place in the City from where I can see the entrance to the foodcourt in the Citicorp building, 8th street between 5th and 6th, random stores along Union Turnpike, The Sheep's Meadow, 68th and Lex, 58th and Amsterdam, Chambers Street, The Upper West Side, 135th Street and St. Nicholas Terrace, et al.

To love this city, or any city for that matter, is to love the memories of one's life, the pivotal moments in the movie of our minds that plays re-runs of episode upon episode; sometimes silent, or with music in the backdrop, and of which we are sometimes the star, sometimes the profound supporting player. To say, I love New York, is really to say, I love my life, a life that is connected to this place to the extent that I get chills when I pass certain places.

And maybe there isn't a place where I--or any one else--would be able to see all of my places. I think it's the knowledge of the relative location--knowing that it's just about over there, that is enough. It goes beyond speculation; it is in the acceptance of the proximity of point of view. You can't see everything at once. Actual distance, actual blockades of buildings, trees, new pedestrians, condominiums, inevitable, yet transient, resemble those intangible distances, called time and change.

To be a New Yorker is to make a declaration within oneself about time and place, habits of life. To be a New York Philosopher is to take contemplation to the street; to listen to questions and paths of thought the way some people listen to the music from their earbuds.