An unusual time

Here is a picture I put together on New Year’s Day from fifty states’ newspaper front pages that were on display in the Newseum.

Be happy and merry: New Jersey and Florida find fun in sports, Kentucky foods and restaurants, Ohio drum beat, and Oklahoma grand opening of bicentennial park.

Making progress: Alabama celebrates the election of the first African-American Mayor and South Dakota its first female governor; activists go strong in Iowa.

Montana and Nebraska announce new laws that raise legal age to purchase/smoke tobacco, but somehow it feels like advertisements for tobacco.

Population rise makes a big deal in Michigan and Wyoming.

Diverse interests, concerns, and issues: Kansas draws attention to old mansion on sale, Georgia politics, Idaho medicare, and California environment.

In Utah a professor re-imagine Barbies as scientists.

Indiana pays homage to lost celebrities, and New Hampshire local hero.

New York (in addition to sex trafficking scandal) and North Dakota deal with remarkable/unusual winter weather, and Vermont warmer climate.

Delaware devotes to its seamen, and Wisconsin troubled farmers.

Maryland, Connecticut and South Carolina confront (hate) crimes; in the wilderness of Alaska woman’s remains found to be victim of homicide.

In Minnesota even the last resort for drug addicts is risky; while Massachusetts tries to educate teens to avoid use of weed, Illinois contemplates possible shortage once sales start in new year (besides its concerns over population decline). A quick update: $3.2 million in legal weed was sold in Illinois on the first day of sales.

Oregon’s loss of police chief becomes Pennsylvania’s gain. Thus one smiles, and one is deadly serious.

In Rhode Island bonfire runs big; in Las Vegas police get ready for New Year’s celebration.

Missouri and Arkansas go global and local; for Missouri it is animal rescue and Arkansas minimum wages.

It is a mixed picture in West Virginia and North Carolina. West Virginia: good will hunting, Nazi, and costly lavish tastes of bishops. North Carolina: Charlotte’s rapid growth and sex abuse in church.

Amazon weights large in Virginia as the state looks into 2020 and beyond.

Several states go retrospective as the decade comes to the end. However, major changes in these states are different. The number one event for Louisiana was President Trump’s visit, for New Mexico tumultuous teens, for Washington the fallout of Boeing 737 MAX, for Texas 55% of Houstonians now identified as Hispanic or Latino, for Hawaii the Kealoha corruption case, for Maine its largest city, Portland’s dramatic development, and for Colorado the Waldo Canyon fire and pot legalization.

A kangaroo on the run, a trapped gator, and a white turkey all tell a magical old Mississippi that still inspires imaginations; Tennessee with an alluring beauty looks mysterious in spite of its despair over crime and poverty.

Now my favorite: Arizona goes poetic. “Who we are is small, but what we can together do is without boundary. Let us move forward on purpose with purpose, knowing we come from, and have learned from, today.” The poet Alberto Ríos thus speaks to us.

I walked to the Newseum along Constitution Ave and passed by the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the White House, and Capital Hill. On my way back I followed Pennsylvania Ave and walked past the District’s City Hall in the historical Wilson Building. I then stopped by the Willard Hotel and walked through its elegant Peacock Alley where Mark Twin “stepped in style” right before he made an exit after spending the winter of 1867- 68 as a bohemian journalist in Washington. It came to me that in 2020 I shall deploy myself to whatever uses that can help make the world and people’s lives better – even just a little bit. This could be my New Year’s resolution and would be the first ever in my life.

Each new year opens with new scenery. On the Potomac today, the sky was blue, but the gulls were no longer there; I didn’t hear Blue Danube. I saw in my mind more bright spots in DC and in all cities large and small, more positive global attitudes, and a more socially, economically and environmentally sustainable world for all mankind.

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After conquering “the bully” on Little Devils Stairs, I felt I should meet his neighbor along Piney Ridge and Piney Branch. “The girl next door” is actually quite pretty: lots of big trees and logs, a rocky river, huge rock formations on the side of waterfalls… Pretty does not mean easy, though – I had to step on shaky slippery stones to cross the stream four times and walk up a steep rocky path to complete the loop.

It was sunny. There was a warm expansiveness in the woods. No wind. Only when I paused to take a snapshot, standing still, did I hear little quiet sounds, murmuring nature’s secrets to my ears.

I came here to see holiday lights. It turned out to be pretty easy: you only need to follow the crowds; and it is amazing. I was also much, and perhaps more, interested in how the city has changed in the past decade and spent most of the time walking in its neighborhoods from Lower Manhattan all the way to Uptown.

While the Big Apple still boasts some of the world’s best cityscapes, and I have no doubt that it is still an epicenter for cultural activities and creativity, its roads and sidewalks are outdated, and some of its skyscrapers are deteriorating. The city is like an aged great diva who looks voluptuous and glamorous on the stage at night, but shows deep wrinkles and obvious wear and tear with heavy makeups stripped off in broad daylight.

It begs for the question of how to build sustainable urban structures, which requires serious considerations of continuous development. At the core of the problem here is scale: both the size of the skyscrapers and the size of the city make it difficult to keep up with renovation and renewal. Smaller architectures would better facilitate continuous development: not only are they easier to maintain, they can also be combined with structures of different styles to create interesting new urban landscapes.

(I cannot help thinking what’s happening in the developing world where large architectures are all erected during a relatively short time period in mega cities. Imagine a hundred years from now on…)

I like Bryant Park the best. It is a humane and natural space in the city. Its surrounding architectures provide a perfect, warm backdrop without feeling artificiality. The public library on the 42nd street also lends charm to the park; even a brief sojourn in the library building to warm up feet reveals things that can last.

I like Bryant Park’s holiday market too. From infinity lights to folding baskets at Chopstick Art, crafts from All Cross Africa, and Alchemist’s glassware, all are wonderful. I had a cup of hot chocolate at United Chocolate Works; it was delicious. We need more united works, and indeed UNITED is what is most needed in America right now.

On the way to chase holiday lights in the Big Apple, half asleep and half awake, while the bus traverses a static winter landscape in the north, it feels surreal and palatable, for it is moving and not moving at the same time, as the mind travels fluidly between the realms of consciousness and subconsciousness. The world space and the mind space become one seamlessly, so immense that it contains everything, and still. All of a sudden I realize that the most effective power may not come from action or pure force.

Despite its relentlessness, there is a certain thing that it cannot do away with.

Salvador Dali Museum at St. Petersburg, a treasure in Florida. Top left: self-portrait as a young man in 1921; top right: the artist at an older age; bottom left: the disintegration of the persistence of memory; bottom right: enchanted beach with three fluid graces (supposedly birth, life, and death).

Bare tree trunks and late afternoon sun. Fresh shells on the beach and blue water. The breathing of another human and music of spring time. A pelican’s great wings and a moment of being whose meaning I don’t know. I heard deep cries for life, raw and innocent, was moved to tears.

Each walk in town is an exciting experience of discovery. There is always something new to see, even in the most familiar territory.

Downtown DC

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Everyday I say good night to them when I draw the curtains and HI the first thing in the morning. Really wish I could do more for them…

Winter may not be that dreadful, nor does it have to be gray. All we need are hot spices and warm tea. Are you up for it?