Another Brooklyn morning. I have lived this movie. Arrived in NY yesterday afternoon. 90 degrees, sunny. The Hindu Goddess and I spent most of the afternoon walking the Brooklyn bridge, from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back. I am enamoured with this bridge. It is a phenomenon, a reality, a potent symbol, an enigma, an impossibility; it holds a lot of meaning for me, it reminds me of how I think and feel about the lakefront at home.
The walkway starts at street level, you are a pedestrian surrounded by cars, then slowly you rise up, the pavement turns to wood, there's a steady incline pointing you to the sky. By the time you reach the middle of the bridge, you are in another realm, up with the birds and gods, yesterday it was all sunshine and blue sky, you look down and see streams of cars coming and going (it's Sunday and it seems everyone is out and about in the world). People of every shape and size, every nationality, on bikes, rollerblades, walkers, runners, lovers, families, babies in strollers...of course the energy...poised between two immensities...Brooklyn, Manhattan.
The Hindu Goddess and I talk, about everything under the sun. At one point she says, "You must have the will to do, what pleases you to do." It hits me full on. A simple formulation, saying so much, so little, it depends on how and if you can let it in - a motto to live by, a credo, a goal, a means and an end...
A bridge is a hopeful expression, joining people together, it declares, "let us share this place." The suspension, is a suspension of disbelief, an assertion of possiblity, of, dare I say it, fraternity, brotherhood. Thomas Merton, tells us, "no man is an island," and it's true, we need to build bridges...it's how we get to the other side.