Launching tomorrow, but today New York. the picture-Savannah Georgia baby.

Today I am New York. If there is any place that you need longer than a day to digest, this would be it. I have some sort of appreciation that this is where all the immigrants first came when they decided to venture to new lands, and that I will be launching from here to explore origins in other parts of the world. I walk down the street with my hand held to my chest feeling the warmth of my hand touching my heart. Is this the center of america? the heart of America. It does seem that all things are born here and when internationals come to visit, New York seems to be the default location. To the tourists, the big exciting world of New York is a place where freakish occurences could be enough to think that you were in some enlightened place, better than home. But to the locals, there are no surprises here. We have seen it before. I appreciate it but I am just trying to work and get home to my family. This is a good place to start my trip. I think this city is maybe a model for what foreigners think America is-busling nightlife, disgusting consumerism and grand appreciation for the arts.
I am just starting or have I been on this trip for ages? When did it begin? It all a bit fuzzy. My posture suggests that I am beginning something new, but what really can change from traveling. Sometimes this is an epic Adventure, sometimes it is a war story where I am leaving my loved ones, a crash course in motorcycle mechanics, or a mission to become more enlightened through exposing myself to the nature of the world. This could be dangerous. I ultimately would like to find out what we all have in common and to be surprised that behind the consumerism, politics and law and trajedy we are bound by kindness. That in fact we don't need someone creating a law of kindness, that we choose kindness out of our own basic human nature. I think when we expose ourself to cultures without laws and people are kind anyways, it can shatter the paradigms we have held about the big bad scary world and create a deaper faith in humanity.