Last week, I was walking up 7th Avenue after helping my dear friend Carol, in the West Village. It was a spectacular Autumn Afternoon. I popped into Matto, on 21st & 7th. They are one of a wonderful string of so named cafes where everything on the menu is $2.50 (if ordered on the app). I was in a great mood, despite the horrid state of affairs-foreign and domestic. Yes there was a tenseness in the air, a feeling that things are bad and they are going to get worse. A collective spirit we are well familiar with from the horrid pandemic.
Dropping my jacket to secure an outdoor table I stepped inside where my online order, cold brew coffee and almond croissant were waiting for me. Back outside, my new friend Gail remarked on my camera and told me she was interested in getting into photography. Well that started me off on explaining the tech of my baby Leica as well as the joys of Street and Travel Photography, which she ate up as fast as I downed my delish pastry. We were then joined by Gail’s lovely friend Connie. As our conversation drifted effortlessly on several topics, I noticed that it had begun to rain, oh well.
Sure enough it was just a sprinkle, office workers heading home, Chelsea men and women strolling, dog walkers getting in walk two or three, students out and about, day workers heading to the subway, all pretty much ignoring the rainfall. It was a real spring like sun shower, like the ones I remember as a kid where my mom let us play outside knowing it would only last a few minutes.
This time a few minutes pass and Manhattan was blessed by an arching rainbow double rainbow in a cloudless blue sky. There was a hush of wonder in the street and on sidewalks.”Do you see it,” “Isn’t it beautiful,” “Yes everything is going to be alright.” Everywhere people where stopping to take selfies and pictures. Strangers reached out to each other smiling and beaming. Yes, we all believed if only for a minute or two, here it is for you to remember always.
©2023 Paul Kornblueh
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