I'm just taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River line...

I was here in Beantown for Saint Patrick's Day weekend last year, so I can certainly attest to the absolute insanity of anyone who had anything to do with it. This year I was in another city, one whose namesake is that of a much less magical fruit.

New York holds their parade on the day of the holiday, rather than the closest convenient Sunday. Most of the hotel's guests were actually from Ireland. Why one would leave the Emerald Isle for the city in which they are, on that particular weekend, most likely to be referred to as a leprechaun is utterly beyond me, but I did manage to refrain from asking any of them if they were, in fact, leprechauns. Even the short ones.

There were wall-to-wall people, everywhere, all the time. Boston has a lot of people, but they don't like each other, so you're a lot less likely to see mobs of people simply standing alongside one another. New York's traffic is crazy, but it has more to do with the volume of it and less to do with the drivers being psychotic. I actually felt safe in the cab. I also felt safe crossing the street, mainly because there was literally no way that they could hit us all. The subway was relatively clean, and the Metro Card was a simple concept that the MBTA should definitely look into. New York’s finest were readily available when we needed directions. That said, I don’t think I’d be able to handle taking up residence there. I prefer Boston's particular brand of shenanigans.

Exception to the abundance of people: Ground Zero. It took us awhile to find the site, but once we did it was like we were in another world. Traffic, pedestrian and otherwise, was nowhere to be found. Very eerie. We lingered there for what quite awhile, and it was a really powerful experience. It got me thinking about how we as a society tend to get caught up in this dog-eat-dog mentality, when in reality we'd do better to stick together and look after each other.

Is this a cure, or is this a disease?

Ah, the weblog. The latest Internet craze to sweep a nation already sick of the latest season of Fear Factor. The concept isn't terribly new, though. No, it's been alive as long as I can remember, even before Google was a household name. The difference is that in those days we called it a diary. Much like the blogs of today, you would record your innermost thoughts and desires, but in those days we strove to keep it private. But no more! This is the Information Age, and the people wish to broadcast their ponderings to the millions upon millions of bored Internet addicts. The logical rebuttal is “hey, no one’s going to care enough to read it.”

Logic’s got a good point.

So, I stand here on my soapbox to pontificate upon the nature of existence, identity, socially prescribed norms, and cheese fries. On this, my very own blog, I can feel the accomplishment of publishing my ideas for the world to see, while not having to deal with the fact that no one’s going to bother. Therein lies the beauty.