The night is dark and the air is heavy. It is 4:30am on a weekday morning, so the city is as deadly still as it ever is. Dawn will soon break, and it is currently twilight. All the bars are closed, everyone has gone home, and the only sounds you hear are the sounds of a city taking its short-lived rest before it all begins again.
Walking through these streets, your thoughts are truly your own. No interruptions and no distractions. In New York, it is one of the few times when almost nothing invades your consciousness. To someone that grew up in the constant rush of activity that is the city, this can be unnerving. But spend enough lonely nights in the woods, and the silence becomes relaxing, a break from the neverending stream of stimuli.
No cars, no people, and no noise except for the occasional whizzing car, scurrying rat, or snoring homeless man. The city seems almost dead, a ghost town, a now-dead monument to the arrogance of a country that had one of the quickest rises in world history and is now slowly declining. Roman dominance lasted 1000 years; American dominance has lasted 60 and is already fading. Things really do move so much quicker than they used to. Traveling from New York to California 150 years ago was a dangerous trek that took months; now it is a 5 hour flight that people consider inconveninet, and we are always seeking ways to speed this up. We are so quick to reach our destinations, that we take no enjoyment from the journey. Is this really progress?
I check my phone and see that it is 4:55 now. The city is slowly waking from its slumber. Twilight fades into dawn as people rise to go to their jobs and the day begins anew. I am sitting in an open park now, staring at the city as it wakes. It is womb, home and coffin to me. It is where I was born, where I live, and where I will probably one day die. I suppose it is possible circumstances will take me away from here, but at the moment, those circumstances are not forseeable.
I grin. It is 5:00am now. My time is done. The city is nearly done waking up, and I can hear the sounds of cars driving, people walking and birds chirping. Twilight is nearly completely extinguished, and soon the activity that never seems to cease will begin in earnest.
I have yet to reach a decision, but that is irrelevant. People are far too eager to reach destinations and attain goals. What good is reaching somewhere if you don't take the time to savor and enjoy the journey? Any decision worth making requires proper time to make.
Perhaps another walk tomorrow morning, then. When the city is dead and seems to truly belong to me.
