It’s too late! “River to River” – ended on June 25.
New York City’s annual 11-day, June festival began in 2002.
Mark your calendars for 2018 to experience a celebration of the arts along the Hudson and East Rivers, and in Lower Manhattan.
However, you need not wait to do what multitudes of visitors do when they visit our City of the World (but Long Islanders seldom do: take the Circle Line around Manhattan or a cruise to Bear Mountain or to West Point).
The “River to River” from the Hudson piers, then along the East River, is a relaxing way to see the dimensions of the city and to glean a sense of its history.
The trips up the Hudson provide leisurely views of the landscape beauty and the various hamlets.
I am looking forward to doing more of those on-the-water ventures very soon; it’s been a while since I have so much enjoyed them.
But, as mentioned in recent columns, I have had the pleasure of taking Amtrak from Penn Station to my Union College town of Schenectady. That was a trip that I took often in the early 1950s.
In those earlier days, I got a ride across the newly constructed Tappan Zee Bridge (now being replaced by a new construction) to join the train at a Westchester station.
On my recent rides, there were extra delights coming out of the city tunnels to enjoy the Hudson River sights before the George Washington Bridge and then looking West (proceeding from Bergen to Rockland Counties) to see the marvelous “Palisades” as the train moved North.
It is imperative wherever you enter a Northbound Amtrak (up the Hudson) to take a seat on the West side of the train, and to choose one of the full windows. For nearly two centuries, people have traveled from around the world to experience a train ride along what Europeans called “the American Rhine.”
[That may also suggest a visit to the lovely town of Rhinebeck where the Beekman Arms is the oldest continuously operated hotel in the United State. In its ancient rathskellar, one gets a feel of its 1704 origins.]
At times, the modern Amtrak trains give you a feeling that you are actually going over the water. Much of the time, you are so close to the water that you can relish a variety of vistas nearby and across the Hudson.
Years after my college train trips, I discovered books by Carl Carmer, and especially appreciated his volume, “The Lordly Hudson.”
While trains move faster than the tourist water vessels described above, the Hudson Amtrak has a pace conducive both to external and internal observations.
A history of particular train trips to special, revisited places surely prompts memories and past assessments. For me, being on this train again brought to mind the song that my fellow college classmate riders (of the early 50s) and I used to sing, “Sentimental Journey” (“counting every mile of railroad track . . . “).
Trains (including their portrayal in the film “Silver Streak”) can prompt “Life Reviews” as well as chance encounters with others.
You don’t need to go to the train “Club Car” to have a “café society” encounter. A person who takes a seat next to you can help foster discourses of reflection and discovery.
There is always a matter of respecting other people’s privacy in all circumstances.
How one begins a conversation with a stranger and how it can proceed with mutual enthusiasm are matters that many folks (like Melville’s “Bartleby”) “prefer not to” even attempt.
Yet, there is an encouraging sign that several cafes in Manhattan and Brooklyn are limiting the amount of time when people can exclusively sit and use computers — an enforced mechanism to encourage talking with each other.
Some of those cafes even place lists of “topics” for discussion on tables to boost discourse for folks who may not be sure where to start a conversation.
Whether in a land-based café, or on a train, folks who are willing to take the initiative of talking with others can experience discourses of discovery for self — and about others.
In her stimulating book, “To Number Our Days,” Barbara Myerhoff, highlights the significance of “Life Reviews” for “elders.”
However, when personal identity and history are the subjects, it is never too early to begin and to extend journeys of discovery.
