The Flowers of Manhattan

I'm reading the book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle. It's such a profound book that I am actually reading it for a third time. I so often read wonderful books that give me insight for living and rather than remembering those insights and applying them to my daily life, I end up forgetting most of it. This book, though, I want to be different. I'm posting about it today because the first chapter is about the flowering of the human consciousness, and I have some lovely pictures of flowers and plants to post from my time in New York. Enjoy!

A stunning mix of soft and pointy plants
at the rock garden at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

Roses my husband bought at a corner
flower stand to celebrate our recent anniversay.

These flowers are blooming on my apartment's rooftop.

This sunflower was waving at me the
day we visited the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

Hurricane

I was in Chicago during the NY hurricane. Darn! I am missing all the excitement!

Earthquake

No, I was not in NY when the earthquake shook things up there. Darn. Hubby was, but he was in a stairwell and missed it entirely. However, my son, who works in Columbus, Ohio, felt it in the office where he was working that day. He said it sounded like a boulder had fallen close by, but the rumbling just kept going.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

 

I'm posting this picture of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park in extra large format. It's probably the most photographed space in Manhattan. But I think my photo is probably the best one. Don't you?

Economist on a Sidewalk

This guy was creating a chalk portrait in front of a restaurant on 86th Street. As you can read from the bottom picture, it is a portrait of Friedrich Van Hayek.

Maybe I'm displaying my ignorance, and maybe most people know who Hayek is. Of course I couldn't post these images without saying something about the man, so I had to look him up. But first, I emailed a friend of mine who edits  economic textbooks. Everyone should have a friend who edits economic textbooks. He wrote back saying, "Hayek is a controversial figure in economic history. He is a favorite of people who have one set of beliefs: small government, low taxes, more conservative economic positions." (I have smart friends.)

Don't you think, though, that's a strange subject to be drawing on a New York sidewalk? Or any sidewalk, for that matter. I wish I would have talked to the artist about his motive. I did put two bucks in his basket.

The last picture was taken the next day, and he was gone

Human Turn Signals

I wish there was a rule in New York CIty that required people to walk on the right-hand side of the sidewalk. It would prevent a lot of full-body collisions. I've only had a couple minor ones but lots of close calls. Maybe I could invent a signal system where our brain waves would activate a flashing light on our shoulders. . .

What's frustrating is you'd expect most people to yield to their right as you approached, like you do in traffic, right? But many insist at the last moment on doing the opposite.

Then I got to wondering what percentage of New York pedestrians come from a country where the left-hand rule applies. I couldn't find any statistics on this, but from WikipediA I learned that 66 percent of countries drive on the right-hand side and the rest use the left-hand rule. Maybe that explains a little. I still like my brain-wave-signal idea.

Football Players Can Write

I'm reading a book written by a professional football player about his adventures traveling all over the world playing their local sports. Dhani Jones, former linebacker for the NY Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and most recently the Cincinnati Bengals, hosted a show called Dhani Tackles the Globe. It ran on The Travel Channel for two seasons. He did some crazy stuff to train for and compete against some of the top players in their fields. . . lifted a 300 pound rock, for example.

It's my second time through the book.

I'm not sure why I'm reading it a second time.

It's a very interesting read. I have been trying to write a paragraph about why I like reading it so much, but heck, let's be honest, I think I just like Dhani Jones. Remember, I met him this year at a St. Vincent de Paul charity where he hosted a fun fashion show by some UC students. Then we won the bid for having drinks with him in his Mt. Adams bar. I took this photo that night.