The Sound of Silence

I tried to take a few pictures today in the park.  It was nice weather and there were quite a few school or camp groups in the park.  There was a lot of loud laughing and squealing.

In a big city, you quickly realize how universal many human interactions are...the group of teenagers playing kick ball, shouting in Spanish...even though I didn't understand a single word they said, I understood everything they said...and when the child walking alongside the stroller that the nanny was pushing met another child her own size, they connected in a way that's unlike any between adult and child.  They stood there staring at each other, communicating without verbal language.  And the little Asian boy who I came upon, laughing and running full speed toward his grandmother who was sitting on the park bench.  He threw his arms around her and told her how high he had swung.  I didn't understand the words she used to praise him, but I understood exactly what she said.  And when I came upon this little girl with possibly her grandfather feeding the ducks in the park, I thought of the times I had fed the ducks with my own grandfather...miles and years apart.  So many things change through the years but so many things remain the same.

An artist works on a painting of the Conservatory Water.

For the last two summers, the man who is memorialized in this photo sat on this park bench with binoculars and a telescope and offered visitors information about and views of the hawks who nested in part of the window ornamentation on a building facing 5th Avenue.  The first day Tony and I walked in the park, I mentioned that the man was always there but I did not see him.  Later I saw this little memorial.  I didn't know him but it is sad to me that he will no longer be there to tell people about the nesting birds.

 This afternoon I went to Film Forum to see the new documentary about Marina Abramovic, the performance artist who sat for three months in the atrium at MoMA and invited museum visitors to sit in front of her and stare into her face.  I am not a fan of her early stuff but the effect she had on people sitting in front of her at MoMA was astounding.  She even commented in the film that the amount of pain that most people have who sit before her is almost palpable.  The documentary does a very good job of demonstrating this truth, along with the celebrity and fame that she garnered.