Our Brief Sojourn to the Big Apple

My son, P-Diddy, and I flew to New York City and spent the better part of today there. (No, we haven't suddenly acquired a fortune. We're able to take trips like this because he works for an airline.)

It had been thirty-plus years since my first and only previous trip to the Big Apple. We decided that since we had just a day, we would concentrate on Lower Manhattan, leaving exploration of other parts of the city to other days we hope to spend there.

The weather was glorious and as is true of most places one visits, people were friendly.

I will say though, that there's probably a higher percentage of sketchy characters in New York than there are in other cities. Like the guy who stood at the front of our subway car to make a speech in which he claimed to be a stroke victim whose utilities had just been turned off. I've known stroke victims and I'm sure this guy wasn't one. What stunned me is that people actually gave him money!

As I watched passengers handing wads of bills and handfuls of change to this clearly fraudulent character, I thought I said, "Unbelievable!" under my breath. But I said it loudly enough for the woman next to me to hear. She smiled and I told her, "I've ridden public transportation in lots of cities, but I have never seen anything like that!" "It happens here all the time," she said. "And do you think these people actually believe him?" "Some of them."

I wanted to say, "Sheesh! I'm from Ohio and I thought that I was supposed to be a hayseed." But I decided to keep my trap shut...for once.

Yet, there was something strangely consoling about this business. The stereotype of people from New York City is that they're jaded and cynical. But here some of them were, buying a tale of woe which this Midwestern preacher found transparently false! Maybe one measure of people's hearts is their willing to suspend their wariness in spite of all the reasons they have for not trusting people.

Another character we ran into today was the guy who told us during a ride on the subway that he was going to the Police Department to file a complaint. Just the day before, he'd been framed, he said, when the cops found a kilo of cocaine someone had planted in his SUV. "I'm gonna get my SUV back, sell it, and then buy a nice house in Puerto Rico and never come back here," he told us. I wanted to say, "Uh...right" with mock credulity, but I stifled the impulse.

But we did meet a boatload of cool, welcoming, helpful people, proving once again that wherever you go, you'll find folks who love telling others about their hometowns.

As to the sights themselves: We went to Wall Street, Trinity Church, the World Trade Center Site, Saint Paul's Chapel, Castle Clinton, Fraunce's Tavern (where George Washington said good-bye to his officers at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War in 1783), the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine, and on the way back to the airport, made a brief stopover at Times Square, a hundred times more vital, bustling, and safe than it was when I visited in 1975.

For my son and me, it was particularly cool to see the tomb and gravesite of Alexander Hamilton in the Trinity Churchyard. Unfortunately though, the small monument to Hamilton is in need of some repair. He truly deserves lofty recognition: Not only was Hamilton a hero of the American Revolution, he also was the architect of the country's (and thus, of the world's economic system) and by his authorship of most of 'The Federalist Papers,' responsible for convincing the thirteen original United States to approve the Constitution.

Was I moved by the World Trade Center site? Yes and no. Of course, like everyone else who was beyond toddlerhood on September 11, 2001, I'll always remember that day when not only America, but peace, civility, and decency, were attacked. And while there are signs posted on the fences through which one can peer to see the site, there were still people winding their ways through the crowds to sell picture books about the 9/11 tragedy, books always opened to photos of a jet plowing into one of the towers, the smoke billowing out. The hawking at that moment and in that space made it difficult to focus on the events that transpired there four-and-a-half years ago.

Of course, New York has always been about commerce, nowhere more so than in Lower Manhattan. But the September 11 attacks do remind us that there had better be more to our lives than buying and selling. In the New Testament, James says that we come into this world with nothing and that's how we'll leave it, too. In the face of these realities, we see how desperately we need God. (See here.)

Maybe I'll write more on our New York trip tomorrow. I'll also hopefully, resume my series on the basics of Christian faith. But for now, I need to hit the sack.