VPID 05 (null) - Flight

Today I walked under overcast sky's. The air was warm and a very slight breeze pushed me up the hill that is 12th Street. I noticed something white in my peripheral vision and glanced to my right to see an absolutely white feather floating in the gentle air. What was interesting was that it perfectly paralleled my motion. It moved in perfect time to my steps. A tree planted in the median between the sidewalk and the street inserted itself between that small white bit of bird and myself. The feather reappeared once I had passed the leafy barrier, and continued unabated matching my movement step for step. Very slowly it began to lose altitude, and then incrementally it sped ahead until finally it settled to earth directly at my feet just as I stopped to watch for cars at the intersecting avenue. With a smile I stepped into the newly envisioned world that now appeared before me. Sometimes the smallest things have the most impact on me. Ah life.

VPID 04 (null) - Ocean Going Swans

Brighton Beach, New York - I'm in the water, which is warm/cold - looking out to the flat ocean surface, and I spy what seems at first glance to be a couple of outrageously ornate ships - far in the distance. However, when I focus more directly through the slight swells of the water I see that this apparition is only at most a hundred yards or so from my location, and these are not ships at all. Rather they are two swans swimming, with a purpose, toward the North away from Cony Island. Stunned, I felt it necessary to run up to the shore to share my vision with Georgina, possibly to assure myself that this was not some visitation of a far too active imagination, and possibly just to be able to share this highly unusual sight on the Atlantic shore. Swans simply do not swim on the ocean, or they never did before, yet now after all the evidence is in - they've decided to conquer new waters.

VPID 1027

Let's face it, you're a pretty big guy: well-muscled I mean to say, sitting on the bench amidst the trees of the park. A basketball sits nearby ready for action. Perhaps you've already played today, or perhaps you're waiting for the game to begin. But, your mind right now is not on the court. Instead all of your attention is focused on the small girl-child (maybe 18 months? - tiny really) who's decided that you are the center of her world. She has just handed you something (I cannot tell what), and whatever it is has brought a smile to your face. That smile is a reciprocal gift delivered into her world without reservation. Now your worlds are fully connected. This is a moment of true communication between equals. I cannot know if the two of you are related, nor if you have ever before encountered one another. A woman, whom I take to be the child's mother, looks on appreciatively with a smile on her own face. Her smile is quiet, filled with pride and warmly peaceful. The sun shines brightly in the blue sky filtering through the trees, and joy fills the slightly humid air.

VPID Null 03 - Baby Birds

It's the nature of things that most often catches my attention, perhaps that, more than other thing on earth. Today I watched two baby birds, no longer nest bound, following their mother about on the grass growing between towering sunflowers. What got me caught up in their chirping excitement was that the mother was picking up various bits of food from the ground and feeding it to each of them in turn. Each of the babies fluttered their wings pushing them back in demonstrations of gratitude. Then they'd gobble down the morsel and dutifully hop and/or flit off in whatever direction mom went. Truthfully, I've never before noticed this behavior in the past. I thought that the chicks dropping like stones from the nest were destined to go it alone, to sink or fly as it were. Now I know better: chicks, like children, need nurturing far beyond that moment when they step into the world... free as birds.

VPID 0010 - The Painter

The world swirls around you. Runners jog by, cars troll along the shoreline, sailboats struggle against the current of Hell Gate, dogs bark, squirrels run circles up and down nearby trees. The horn of a park vehicle sticks, and a loud drawn out BLATTTT scars the warm air. All the while you stand quietly within the perfect center of a small concentrated bubble - peace. You hold a selection of brushes in one hand, your glasses have fallen slightly askew, the hat that should be on your head to protect you from the heat of the sun lies forgotten on the edge of your palette. Your concentration is exact as it defines the canvas set on the easel before you. The image of the park in all its green rain-filled summer glory is coming into a life of its own in the immediacy or your own careful hand. You add touches of light and shadow. This moment, captured in your mind's eye is here made manifest for the rest of us as you allow the image to flow out into the world. Nothing is new, and yet there is a clear certainty of birth in this expression released as something totally unique, something that has never before been seen in quite this same way. Your picture is indeed worth more words than are available.

VPID Null 02

There are perhaps ten men. Each sits on small a round disk such as one might see attached to the end of a rope swing suspended over a river. These guys are rappelling from the roof of a 20+ story blue-glass-faced building as though it were a mountain. I suppose in the city skyscrapers are as close as we can come to mountains. What can they be thinking? What would compel a person to do a thing like this? The answer is written in the squeegee held in one hand, and the wet cloth in the other. They are washing windows. It's true. These men must surely be considered skilled labor and even artists in their country of origin (for they are unequivocally not from around these parts), but here they are simply useful to the building superintendent.  This method must be illegal in NYC. OSHA seeing such a display would of a certainty become apoplectic, froth at the mouth, and go berserk, right? But what OSHA doesn't see doesn't bother them. While other window washer crews deal with such ridiculous things as scaffolding and safety harnesses and cranes, these stalwart swashbucklers swing across the face of the building with acrobatic ease. What they don't realize is that people would pay good money just to watch their antics. They could charge the public for prior information concerning which building they will be washing. But I suppose that would call attention to not only their amazing feats, but to the fact that they are swinging like trapeze artists in pursuit of nothing more than a living wage.

VPID 008 - In The park

Great dog! It's good to be in the park when the temperature has not reached its predicted zenith. One of you has taken the other out for a walk to perhaps sniff at a bush, pee on a fence post, or possibly chase a bird or two when something captures your undivided attention as it scampers around in the treetops overhead. Together you stand suspended statue-like, poised in mid-stride. Four wide eyes are focused on a single spot of motion high above. And you wait. And wait... Then, after several seconds have ticked by without so much as a breath of activity - one of you makes the decision to carry on, and off you go to whatever fabulous pleasures await in the great unknown and wonderful day ahead. Hey look - someone's lost a tennis ball!