The wanderer.

Work is quieting down, something of a relief. By quieting down I mean I get out at 2 or 3 in the morning instead of 5 or 6. It still doesn’t do wonders for my sleep cycle but, I’ll gladly forego deep sleep for a few weeks in the attempt to square myself with my creditors (or at least make a dent).

So, last night I got out at the reasonable hour of 2am. Now, at 2am you can’t really call anyone you know and say let’s meet up for a drink or an after work tete-a-tete (coffee or a meal). Most of the rest of the world is on a different schedule and they are well off into slumber-land saying hello to Little Nemo. The few hardy souls who are still awake don’t feel much like venturing out in the cold Manhattan night.

What to do, what to do?

Well, drive around the city and take pictures for one thing.

So as I made my meandering way home last night. I took a leisurely drive up the length of Manhattan stopping along the way to snap pics of things as they caught my fancy. It’s a bit of self-indulgence if you will, a little treat at the end of a long week.

I took a bunch of photos too. I was surprised at the discomfort I felt though taking them. See, nowadays there is so much more concern for security and there is much more surveillance of us than we might even realize. As you walk around the city, at times you may not even be aware of the fact you are being watched, whether it be by security cameras (rather unobtrusive) or security guards or police.

It’s all in the name of safety but, I have to wonder if the price isn’t too great. I wonder if in fact we are sacrificing much more than we know. I doubt all these increased security measures will truly prevent anything from happening. There is still crime, there is still violence, these things do not go away but, in the name of safety we allow ourselves to be watched and monitored. We give up a piece of ourselves, we give up our privacy and also we wind up giving up part of our freedom.

In the days following September 11th, many statements were punctuated with the phrase, “...and then, THE TERRORISTS WILL HAVE WON!” So, in order to keep them from winning, the law abiding, the decent, the humane, the free allow themselves to give up their freedoms under the guise of preventive measures. It’s akin to putting people in jail so they will be safe from murder or other crime. It makes little or no sense to me.

We give up the very things which our enemies hold us in contempt for and then we turn around and say they have not cowered us.

Anyway, my circuitous route through the city took me many places last night. Often I would find myself walking along in the very quiet pre-dawn hours the only person around that is except for the unmistakable camera, or guard or policeman. Not doing anything wrong per-se but, certainly feeling the presence of the omnipotent eye of authority looking down upon me keeping track of my movements.

At one point, I found myself in a public park taking a picture of Grant’s Tomb of all things. Grant’s Tomb is just beautiful at night. It’s lit up, glorious in all its splendor. It sits in a corner of Manhattan almost forgotten by many except those in its immediate neighborhood. By this I mean, it is something many deem not worthy of a special trip, it is not something big on the destination list of tourists.

Tucked away at the edge of Morningside Heights, it stands vigilant, a last outpost of gentility before arriving into the poverty of Harlem just on the other side of the bridge or down the hill from where it stands.

Truly magnificent, it looks as if it could be plunked down in Washington DC and not seem at all out of place among all the other structures of national significance but, here it is, lonely and forlorn on the edge of the neighborhood.

At night (and I imagine much of the day too) the building has those ugly metal gates used for crowd control surrounding it. They don’t do much in terms of security and only ugly up what is a rather gorgeous piece of urban architecture in the grounds surrounding the monument. There are two guard booths, small structures, much like those used by parking attendants at outdoor lots scattered throughout the city. Ugly, little squat squares with harsh fluorescent lighting, they seem like punishment booths for the personnel required to man them and are structural pimples on the site.

When I snapped a few pictures (odd in and of itself because of the hour), I walked back out to my car only to find a police cruiser with its lights going. It was a bit unsettling. I wasn’t hassled or anything but, there was this momentary panic. I wasn’t do anything wrong but, welcome to the post 9/11 world.

We really need to fix that.