FOUND IN NEW YORK

[Do not read unless you have read the previous posting, Lost in New York]

So whilst I was finding myself, there were also some unusual things I found. These are the Top Ten (in no particular order). Health Warning: This used to be called ‘showing people your holiday snaps’.

1.      A group of men in Madison Square Park with a small crane building the Statue of Liberty in Lego with lots of kids making a flower garden in the same stuff.

2.      A second hand bookshop with 18 miles of shelves

3.      Two Phoenixes (Arising) created by Chinese artist – Xing Bu - hanging in what will be, when completed, the world’s largest Cathedral –  the Cathedral of St John the Divine, which they started building in 1892

4.      A car park where they lift you up to the higher level floors

 

5.      A Chinatown that has also been Little Italy, the Jewish quarter and, before that, Irish New York, with a Catholic church in the middle – built in 1801 - that has coped and thrived with all of them

6.      An Old Sailors Home – Snug Harbor - on Staten Island, with Classical Buildings from the early 19^th century which has been converted into a cultural and community area (think Greenwich)

7.      A church which is also a dance studio and was built in 1799 for the first Governor of New York, Peter Stuyvesant

8.      The succession of green oases in the middle of Manhattan – Madison Square Park, Union Square, and Washington Square Park which make for a great walk on a sunny afternoon

 

9.      Though it’s famous, I bumped into it by accident, the Flat Iron Building

10.   Cooper Union where the agitated and indignant of 19^th century New York met to be indignant, but were also able to get educated for free: A popular motto there was Agitate, Educate, Organize

So, lost or found, the city is constantly revealing its history, diversity, and fascination.

As I was writing this blog, Ann was attending a requiem mass at Holy Trinity Cathedral for our friend Jonathan Mane –Wheoki who died, after a long illness, last week. Just before I left, he and I had coffee, knowing that it would be the last time we met. He said that the one place in New York I should visit was the Cathedral of St John Divine. He had a number of favourite churches, so this wasn’t the first such proposal. He was now in hospice care and Ann suggested I go to the church and take a photograph to send to him. As I was travelling over there on the Friday, via Columbia University, I received an email from Paul, his partner, telling me that Jonathan had died. I continued my journey and went over to the cathedral to light a candle and that’s when I discovered the Phoenixes that I mentioned above. I quite liked the idea of Jonathan’s flame, next to a Phoenix Arising, in his favourite church. A colleague of mine and Jonathan’s, Tania Ka’ai wrote to me: “In the Māori world we have a proverb: ‘Mate atu he tētē kura, ara mai he tētē kura’, meaning ‘As one chief dies, another rises to take its place.’ It did seem serendipitous.

Jonathan was much loved by many people and despite his immense success and achievements always managed to demonstrate humanity and humility. Te Papa have put a tribute on their site which says: “You could call him ‘a mighty totara’, a man of mana and charisma, indeed (to be rather old-fashioned) a ‘gentleman’ – and you’d be right each time. He exuded grace, warmth and a generosity that was both intellectual and emotional. His wonderful speaking voice might have made him a highly successful actor or indeed a clergyman.” That summed him up well. I will miss him, and so will many others.