NYC: Day 4

Wow. . . each day it feels like there is a lot to reflect on; like how Manhattan is this big, tall city but it also feels small -- everything is less than 5 miles from each other. . . And subways drop people off just 7 blocks away! I've been getting the hang of things and have been fairly proficient at navigating around town; I occassionally get turned around but I've been doing pretty well :>) Nancy & I even successfully navigated our way around town on the subway! (YEAH for us!) Did we mention the crazy people on the subway (see picture)? ;>) Also, there's the funny issue that the subway seems to be one of the quietest places in New York. Too funny!



Class continues to be "interesting" . . . More on that later. . . Okay, teaser for now: We were forewarned that the class moves really quickly and there's a lot to learn; however, we have a different instructor who regularly falls further & further behind in the slides because he's going down tangents. It's the difficult situation of trying to pay really good attention but having to follow someone who starts giving an example down one path & then discovers that won't work and makes the statement that we should probably get back to the coursework. I'm trying to keep an open-mind, but "wow." Then there's the fact that more than half the class arrives between 30 minutes and 2 hours late. . . regularly. Hmm. . .

Anyhow, we enjoyed the rest of the evening (we TRULY need to get out during daylight one of these days! We asked our instructor about getting out early on Friday and he'd been hopeful but at the rate he's going. . . Today we ended up staying late. grrr. . . ). . . ANYHOW, we went to Ash Wednesday mass at St. Francis Assissi -- we were trying to make it to St. Patrick's Cathedral but were running late and ended up just finding a church on the walk along the way. I really had the sense of the world-wide church there. The diversity of cultures, looks, and people in New York is amazing! I'm not noticing any predominant ethnicities here!



After mass we headed toward the subway and down to Ground Zero. . . We ended up stopping at St. Paul's Episcopal church right across the street from the WTC. The church is where George Washington had attended and there's many more historical notes of interest, but most impressive is that it was the refuge after 9/11. It was miraculously un-touched when the buildings around it were damaged -- it was also where many signs for missing people & messages were posted. Most importantly, it was a main base for the many volunteers those first several months. . . with people generously giving all they could. A sign there had said that they served about 3,000 meals a day there to volunteers and they had chiropractors, pedometrists, and massage therapists there to help the volunteers who were bunking there between their shifts of searching through the debris.


I was touched and teary. . . A small voice inside me heard that scripture passage about Moses, "Take off your shoes for the ground you stand is holy. . ." Know what I mean? Wow. I definitely think that is a place I will want to go on my future visits to New York (have I mentioned that I think I will need to visit often?). In contrast, the actual Ground Zero site was mostly fenced off with high fences we couldn't see past. And then there was the surprise that the subway is back in service there! Wow. (How many times can I say "wow"? but truly, there's no better word for my experiences.)

















So, that's a little bit of my day today. . . Each day after I post I think of so many more things to say, but . . . I guess some of it gets to wait to tell you in person ;>)