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The Secret Behind New York

By: Quill Wordsmith
wordsmith@excapethematrix.com

I stepped off the train and I stood outside of Madison Square Garden until I met up with my guide. New York. There were so many people. There are so many people. So many….. so many buildings. The buildings are all so tall and they’re so big. Those buildings. They’re so tall and they’re so big. And they stay lined up like soldiers. Shoulder to shoulder to shoulder until you step back and realize…..

They are mountains.  

Malcolm X Boulevard and Lennox Avenue. There were so many people. United Fried Chicken, Associated Markets, African Braiding, Harlem people. So many people. Black people. The M10 and the BX bus, the M17 and people. Head wraps and that sexy staccato speech for sexy staccato people. Reggae banging out of stores. Street musicians and the R&B man at the corner of 142^nd and Lennox. He sang Brandi and Jodeci and the wino next to him danced to demonstrate to everyone that there was actually something to dance about nearby. LIFE. All these beautiful people.

"to find the shadow of a star is where I’ll successfully find the limit to the sky"

There are so many people and mountains with fire escapes that resembled art. NYPD cars looked more like television props than they did authority. I couldn’t take them seriously. The supermarket. There are people everywhere. They all are brown. None of them are without color. They all have on fitted caps, timberlands and denim. They all have bubble coats, and cornrows, rainbows in they mouths. They all resemble hip hop. And they…are so beautiful. They all stare at you in the eyes and say nothing. But their stare is so attentive that you can’t help but be grateful for the fact that you, your walk, your stance, your smile, YOUR eyes, and your very existence have all just been acknowledged by a complete stranger. That’s how I felt. All these people….these rich beautiful people of color. Living on mountains. And the only thing in the valley is soil rich with history and ways to beautify you.

I believe that tucked behind each storefront church and in the very color that is fire escapes is something valuable. I honestly believe that the sirens of the ambulances and fire trucks, when they reach that highest point in their call are something great. Children here actually act like children. And there are so many people here. Something about the illegal Lincolns and the basketball courts is the secret that everyone knows. From the youngest person to all of the elderly women walking with their Sunday’s best eating Popeyes chicken & biscuits. They’ve all learned that the sky is the limit.  They know that the sky is the limit. They also know the secret that at night, if you look into the sky, you realize that you’re peering beyond the molecules that make it blue, and you’re staring right into the soul of the sky. These children (old & young mind you) who live in these mountains all realize that there is not one single limit to the countless things they can do, see, hear, touch, smell, achieve, accomplish, and most of all, be the FIRST to be. The first person to make up the songs they sing. The first to bless people the way that they do. The first of they family’s generation to obtain LIFE the way they do. Little does the world know, they all have the ability to do the same. Hence it is a secret to the world, but a well known hush to Harlem. 

"NYPD cars looked more like television props than they did authority. I couldn’t take them seriously."

That night I dreamt.  I felt blessed to know the Harlem/New York secret. What is that secret? Beyond the sky there are stars and if possible, to find the shadow of a star is where I’ll successfully find the limit to the sky. And do you know - - no living man has ever discovered or found that shadow. Yet, sad to say, every man living as we speak doesn’t even know about the stars. Heads hung so low, they… don’t even…know about … the …sky. This is more than a melting pot, but it’s actually the recipe. There are more than mountains here and life. There’s more than artistry and culture. This is the perfect example of what diversity is all about and it was definitely an experience worth re-living. Even if it’s relived in my own town and I remind myself about that secret - - The sky is the limit.