"For us, as people sitting here meditating, as people wanting to live a good, full, unrestricted, adventurous, real kind of life, there is concrete instruction that we can follow, which is the one that we have been following all along in meditation: see what is."—Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape, p. 36.
April 2009
How on earth does a non-NYer plan a trip to NYC without the internet??
We're headed there in a few weeks. Normally I'd be all over google trying to figure out the *perfect* two days in Manhattan, hashing through a million details, looking stuff up every five minutes, scouring photos of the places we think we might want to go, coming up with 25 billion possibilities for those two short days, then having to let most of them go. Painfully.
Then, hanging over my head for the entire trip would be the Lost Opportunities. The Things We Might Have Done. This is just how my brain works.
Basically, the internet is a perfectionist's nightmare when it comes to trip planning.
So, relying entirely on the memory of past enjoyment of Manhattan, paying close attention to what might really matter to me, J., and the boys — and remembering the need to pack enough nothing into each day so we can enjoy the moment — we plan our trip.
Empire State Building. Museum of Natural History. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Taking the subway everywhere. A visit possibly with a Buddhist teacher I haven't seen in 17 years. But leaving enough free, open space in each of those days to actually enjoy what where we are.
Even relying entirely on memory there will be two dozen wished-we-could-haves: Maybe we'll miss out on a good Jewish deli pickle. MOMA. Broadway. The Strand. And on and on.
But...in those slightly panicky moments...what about last minute museum-hour look ups riding the train in from LI? Directions? Hm??
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You know I work at Disney world and it is sad really how people come here and rush through their whole vacation following a rigid planned out itinerary with such strict discipline that no one has any fun. Sometimes its best not to plan too much and just go with the flow of where a vacation could take you that way it would really be a vacation and not a quest or a mission. I've never been to New York and have always wanted to go and I'm sure I would want to see everyone and everything in the short amount of time of my stay if I got to go.
ReplyDeleteThe great part about New York is, even if you know a zillion people there, it's verrrry easy to take a stealth trip. But yes. Hard to make choices.
ReplyDeleteSOoo many things to do I know. I am a fan of City Maps.. it's a great way of organizing the city and finding new things to try.
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