Look Down

I walked to the gym from work yesterday. Cold, windy, and gray as it was it was still enjoyable. I work on Park Avenue in between 41st and 40th streets and my gym (Bally's) is near 8th Avenue and 50th street. In my mind, if I have the time, it seems pretty foolish to take the train when I'm going to the gym to sweat anyway! So, I walked along 41st street heading west toward the main branch of the NYC Library. You would recognize it by the stone lions out front. All along 41st street are plaques incorporated into the sidewalk with quotes about and from books and other writing. It's something I have walked past many times without stopping to read. It crosses my mind to read them, but I'm on my way somewhere and stopping to read the sidewalk usually isn't the best use of my time. As I passed over them yesterday I thought, "Okay, I am going to randomly stop and read one of these." This is the one I read.

"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can give that to people, then you are a writer. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), "Old Newsman Writes," Esquire December 1934