NYC

The family and I have been in the world’s greatest city for the last few days while I attend a philosophy for children conference and they wander about visiting art galleries; now, I’m done and we’ll play together for the next 48 hours or so.

As always when I visit Manhattan, I feel like the proverbial country mouse, awed by the big buildings, vast underground rail system, and sheer crush of humanity everywhere you go.

We’re on the Upper West Side, where I’ve never spent much time, and the conference was at Columbia, where I’d never been before at all. It feels like a Woody Allen movie in these parts, with lots of skinny old women and red-faced bald guys who always seem to be arguing over something that could easily be rectified by looking at a subway schedule or consulting a map or something like that.

I’ve been doing yoga at this studio, Pure Yoga, right down the street, that’s more like a high-end health club than a temple, like I’m used to, but the amazing facilities sort of outweigh the weirdness of having mats that are color-coded with the rooms and norms that include just leaving your sweat-soaked towels on the ground for people (of color, naturally) to pick up after you.

The philosophy for kids conference was pretty great: lots of talks from people involved in this practice that, after a decade and a half of involvement on my part, it turns out I’m sort of almost a figure in. Oddly enough, even though the practice itself is highly-interactive, I was one of only a couple folks who really engaged the audience in some sort of activity.

But, I only fell asleep and drooled on myself once, and that was during the last talk on the last day, so not bad.

Now, though, it’s two days of wide awake as I get to wander about, too, starting today with a visit to Coney Island.