It's obvious I'm not getting out of the city enough - or taking enough time off. Hence my obsession with community gardens, parks and other greenery. In this photo, I show a pleasant scene with people in a gazebo in La Plaza Cultural Garden. As atypical as it may be, I'm sure you can see through the thinly disguised veil to hide my true motivation - another garden shot. Sorry. Of course only a New Yorker would feel a need to justify an "indulgence" in nature at the expense of all the exciting cultural things one should be doing. In the world of film, such indulgences are fodder for award winners or box office smash hits: men living with bears, trekking after penguins or living in the wild ala Thoreau. And then there is the busy busy ethic, a defining characteristic of our culture and particularly a place like New York, an ethic that basically says any and all busyness is good and is sufficient to justify one's existence. And relaxing is at least a venial sin. By this definition a gazebo could be seen as the devil's playground ...
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Devil's Playground
It's obvious I'm not getting out of the city enough - or taking enough time off. Hence my obsession with community gardens, parks and other greenery. In this photo, I show a pleasant scene with people in a gazebo in La Plaza Cultural Garden. As atypical as it may be, I'm sure you can see through the thinly disguised veil to hide my true motivation - another garden shot. Sorry. Of course only a New Yorker would feel a need to justify an "indulgence" in nature at the expense of all the exciting cultural things one should be doing. In the world of film, such indulgences are fodder for award winners or box office smash hits: men living with bears, trekking after penguins or living in the wild ala Thoreau. And then there is the busy busy ethic, a defining characteristic of our culture and particularly a place like New York, an ethic that basically says any and all busyness is good and is sufficient to justify one's existence. And relaxing is at least a venial sin. By this definition a gazebo could be seen as the devil's playground ...
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10 comments:
If you have a Puritan work ethic, I guess relaxing in Nature would be the Devil's work...but this picture is so beautiful it belies anything as scary and bad as the Devil would be...
The atmosphere is conducive to rest and relaxation, perhaps with a bit of reading, eating, and reflection.
'Tis true, but idleness can lead to mischief :)
What a wonderful place!
xana (Figueira da Foz)
No justification is needed at all. I love all your garden shots! We don't have enough parks and gardens around here.
Brian, not getting out of the city as much as you'd like makes you an expert on nyc community gardens! You should think on reviewing them all and publish your review in a book format.
Lush and relaxing.
Good post. And I like your observations of the tensions of city life.
Nice photo, nice thought process that takes us on a trip within ourselves to find what we think about allowing ourselves to relax.
Beautiful images, mind adding Palm Springs Daily photo to your links? http://palmspringsdailyphoto.blogspot.com
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