Until I moved next to the Hudson.
Until I realized that the river was two blocks away from me.
Tonight I ran 7k, from 163 to 72.
Running is a way to survey the landscape. To keep moving, despite all the noise and clutter. Running is meditation in motion. It just happens to also be good for your heart and body.
People say that Central Park is the great release valve of the gridiron - an open space to roam free, free of the traffic and stress and business of the city. But for me, that is the Hudson. There, along the stretch from Washington Heights to Midtown, you survey and traverse multiple landscapes and neighborhoods, connected singularly by a large expanse of water, where across lies Jersey and the heights.
This is the one place that feels "open" in New York. On the east side, Brooklyn and Queens feel too close.
I love openness. I always have. There's something about being spatially "out in the world" that liberates and heals and perfectly juxtaposes the "digital interior" world we live in, and all the urban chaos and smells and trash.
Sometimes I wish I can do what Forrest Gump did in the movie, and run across the country. And run away from all the problems and people and past and baggage: