I love New York

You can hate New York and think about how you can't take it anymore—the noise, the yuppies, the filth, the corruption, the hopelessness—and talk about how you're going to leave and where you're going to go ... and then along comes a day like today, and you wonder why anyone would live anywhere else.

First, there was the weather: Warm, blue skies.

Then, there was Union Square: An exhibit called "Sukkah City," displaying the winners of a competition to "explore what happens when a structure that is biblical in origin is relocated from the desert to Union Square, from a nomadic past to an urban center." Let's just say these were not your traditional sukkahs. On a grassy area just north of Sukkah City, a young woman was walking a tightrope secured by two trees. She invited passersby to give it a try—and some did! She said the reason she loves walking the tightrope is that it requires total concentration, shutting out thought and keeping her totally in the present, like meditation. And a little farther up in the park, a guy wearing a Duncan T shirt was teaching kids yo-yo tricks.

Now it's clouding over, and we're back at home, feeling very pleased that we live here and nowhere else.