DAY 329
02.27.08
TREE 205
I talked to some rich people today by a country club. Then I went to a not-so-wealthy neighborhood. It seems the wealthier the household the less they care or concern themselves with politics. However, the lowest income households don’t care at all or are mostly angry at politicians and frustrated with their personal lot in life. All in all, another interesting but cold day of door-to-door canvassing. After two packets I left headquarters with enough time to drive over to Eden Park before dinner time. First I parked right next to the Art Museum and considered going in. Instead I wrote in my journal and then left that parking lot only to park just down the road.
When I got out of my truck I saw this massive beech. I gave it a good look and saw a possible path to the top. So that was it, my mind was made up.
I crossed the park road and went up the snowy hillside to the base of this massive tree. The trunk split in four or five major leaders. I began to climb and transferred between three leader branches before finally settling on one to get to the top. There were some good challenging spots but for the most part it was fairly easy.
Towards the top the HOPE Obama button on my jacket got caught on a twig and popped off.
At the top,
probably 60 or more feet up, I tied a pink ribbon and got out my camera to capture my view.
The sun was finally poking out from behind the clouds.
I had a great view of the museum
and down the hill towards downtown.
I put the camera back in my pocket and stayed up at the top a short while longer. In trees of this size I like to just look down at the ground so far away and marvel at my accomplishment.
The series of movements up the limbs never seem to add up to the height. It seems like it should have been harder or taken longer.
Then I climbed back down, retracing my steps in reverse. It is always easier on the way down thanks to gravity. Then once back on the snow, I looked around for my white button in a sea of white. But I found it after a minute or two and reattached it to my zipper.
Even though it was mid day, in a park with the sun peaking out, no one was even near enough to see me.
I went completely unnoticed. And that was perfect. What a tremendous tree.
3-6-09: It sounds kind of awful how I generalized rich and poor people at the beginning of this entry. I did talk to a lot of people in that week and those views were pretty much reinforced over and over. But I still think it’s wrong to generalize the way I did. I was surprised, however, to meet so many people who considered themselves Republican but like Obama. I believe that had a lot to do with their children. Most young people that answered the phone were all psyched to see my Obama buttons. I guess some just had some sway over their parents which is always nice to see.
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The last Thursday in February of 2009 was my last day in New York City. I met up with Colin Ross, a friend from high school who currently lives in Brooklyn and serves at a fish place in SoHo called Lure. I met him and his Fiance at Old Town which is a cool old pub bar near Union Square Park. We caught up over lunch and some other friends of theirs showed up. After we were finished Colin had to go to work but I went the others to the MoMA. By the time I had hit all the floors and said my goodbyes it was getting dark. I wanted to see Scott’s office before we went out to eat at Lure for our last dinner of my trip. I had enough time to run over to Central Park and climb a tree.
I had picked out a tree a few weeks ago over by the ice rink.
I didn’t climb it then because there was a cop in a 3-wheeled cart parked within eye shot. But this time the coast was clear. There were plenty of people around, don’t get me wrong, even ones on the rock right next to my tree, but at this point I didn’t care. It was my last night in town and I was determined to have a good climb where I didn’t feel paranoid and preoccupied.
Thetree grows out of the edge of a large rock formation up the hill from the rink. To get in the tree I had to take an overhanging limb. The limb seemed very bendy and I feared it might break when I put all my weight on it, but thankfully it did not. When I knew it would hold I hooked my heels and crawled in towards the trunk.
Before I got to the trunk I righted myself to the top of the limb and then slid on my ass the rest of the way. I was waiting for all these kids on the rock to make comments but I also half ignored them to act as if I didn’t care if I was watched.
By the time I got to climbing up the branches I couldn’t make out what they were saying anyway, so it was pointless. It was a smaller tree but it had great branches and was a fun, slightly challenging climb.
I got to the top and eagerly took pictures.
There was just a little light left in the sky over the mid-town skyscrapers.
The skaters went in circles below
and the park-goers came and went on the rock.
At the top if the tree I felt invincible. It didn’t matter if I got spotted, yelled at, told to get down, because I had reached the top, taken my pictures and now I was just taking in the experience.
Then I figured I needed to climbed down to meet up with my brother.
I took a few more shots as I went back to the lowest limb.
Then I cat-crawled back out then rotated under and crawled the rest of the way to the end of the branch and dropped. It felt so good to finally climb this tree and to be done with New York climbs. They were fun but there was just too much anxiety involved. It really reinforced my feeling that New York City is a great place to visit, but no place I’d want to live.