Harmless as a fluttering leaf.

November 12, 2002

Harmless as a fluttering leaf. Nothing too threatening. A regular New York city rain as tornados rip the seams out of the rest of the USA. The weather porn floods the TV with money shots of destruction, despair, and shaky testimonials. Here its just rain but New Yorkers deserve sun everyday for what they’ve weathered of late. I had a break in rehearsing for tomorrow’s show and decided to take a run.
It was dark as I ran uptown from 52nd on 7th Avenue towards Central Park. Ducking umbrellas and trying not to slip on metal grates I survived several unintended pick plays to make it to the end zone at the bottom of the park. I was already soaked to the skin only a few minutes into it but I started to lift my head as I ducked into the park. The wind was picking up and those old fashioned cast iron street lamps threw soft edged ovals of dim light across the wet road heading up into the heart of the trees. A soggy blanket of orange umber leaves lay across the puddles and streams that were reclaiming the sidewalks. The wind carried the leaves sideways and down from the trees like so many sighing confetti cannons. Heading into the dark fall underworld I heard the voice in my head start singing a tune. It was the the Stones “Miss You”. You know, “I walk in Central Park singing after dark. People think I’m crazy”. I started to take the lyrics to heart and wondered how prudent it was to run into the bowels of the park at this late wet hour. I saw one other runner and knew that in the new New York I’d be just fine. Street smarts overlap into your “touch wood” world. You think you have the skills but you’re still running on some speculation. Know the hot spots and hope that stepping around them will be enough. You figure that some of those people in the tornado’s path had seen it all and probably knew what they were up against. Street smarts. But those are big ones. Big hazards that require intense preparation. After deciding I was safe from these hazards I started to take my world in. After being cooped up in a hotel and heading out into one of the world’s most exciting cities one should try to take in the details. Be aware. It pays off. You can add a lot of what you see to the collection of your image life. I kept my head up. At that instant a falling leaf poked me in the right eye.
Temporarily blinded I stopped and clutched my face. Standing in that cold puddle I became aware that I was really too close to the road. When the blurry vision cleared, and I began running again, one hilarious scenario played out in my head. Like this: the leaf hits me in the eye. Being surprised and temporarily blinded (when one eye is poked you close both) I unintentionally stagger into traffic and am mowed down by a yellow cab on its shortcut uptown. I am carrying no identification. The generic plastic key card in my back pocket leads investigators to the wrong hotel and my identity is assumed to be that of the guest who just checked out of the room. If it were a movie plot I would survive to have amnesia and be taken to the other guy’s hometown. You can be ready for the big hazards but the little ones are too surreal to even calculate. I guess you just give into the touch wood world. Not far from the wood is the leaf at the end of that branch.