1. For most of my life, the night -- and specifically its final hours -- has been the most neglected part of my day, a time when, if given the choice, I always wanted to be sleeping.
2. But lately, I've been waking up restless, almost with a sense of being summoned. It seems a little ridiculous -- it's still dark and it would be easy to get back under the covers -- but sleep feels too far away. There's no point fighting the impulse. I get up and go outside, where the air is cool and the block is calm. At this hour, the city is familiar -- I know where I am -- and foreign, as if I'm seeing it for the first time.
3. Over by the river, I pass the new billboard erected by Amtrak in the face of community opposition. It does ruin the view, but I guess it's worth it to line the pockets of an Amtrak executive help the trains run better.
4. The early morning is a time of quiet optimism -- there are no people -- and quiet despair, because so much of the landscape feels like the aftermath of something destructive. Still, the mind is flexible and permeable at this hour and in this light. I'm running through a dream and a nightmare.
5. The path through the park is hilly and uneven. It feels dangerous to let myself go, to run fast down the hill -- and I have fallen in the past (and probably will again in the future) -- but it's also difficult to resist. To fly down a hill releases the mind, an effect that's compounded by the night.
6. I find money on the steps.
7. The stairs from Riverside Drive lead me into an abyss.
8. Here is Manhattanville, the new campus of Columbia. The enormous scope of the construction site makes me feel like I'm on the moon.
9. The path on the river is my reward after navigating the hills, the steps, and the construction. Here I can run as fast as I want without fear of tripping.
10. Moving north, the path transitions from post-industrial wasteland to Victorian-park fantasy.
11. The bridge, always beckoning, reflects against the river.
12. Stone sentries guard the riverbank, some facing south.
13. And others facing north, wondering as the sky brightens what what they might find on the other side.
Comments