New York City: The World's Largest College Campus

When we left New York this last time, Steve said it reminded him of his first few weeks of college: Many people in a small geographic area, all of them needing to be 25 different places to do 50 different things with only 25% of them really knowing where to go and how to do it. And over it all hovers a sense of potential and possibility--the pulse of the city. Steve was sensing the transient nature of the city, I think. Simply hearing the plethora of languages spoken in any given subway car will convince you that most New Yorkers were not born there, but rather, they have arrived there on some leg or another of their own personal journey. That, and we spent much of our time in the tourist attractions, where indeed most people had no clue where they were going.

Then I came across a quote from some famous playwright (So sorry, sir, I don't remember your name). "New York is where you go to become who you're going to be." Again, that sense of growth, of potential, that fits those transitional years of college.

So it makes sense to me that I've been thinking of college frequently. I've even been listening to a lot of the music that I did then--Indigo Girls, 10,000 Maniacs, Dave Matthews Band. Along with the New York possibility and potential that is so delicious, I'm feeling the same sort of imbalance and impermanence that I did in school. Only this time it's tempered with a dash of maturity (I hope), a loving husband, 2 great kids, and an absolute assurance that God is on this journey with me. So in the end, I can dwell in the possibility and potential.

I can't wait to see who we're going to become in New York City.