So…Sandy happened. But the city pushes on as usual. And there are a few things that I’ve seen that aren’t just a symbol of the spirt of New York City, but of the human spirit on a whole.

1.) Restaurants rearranging their menus to figure out how to serve food without having to use electricity to prepare it (you guess is as good as mine.) Tons of signs in windows that read “Come in for dinner by candle light.”

2.) Old men on a corner in the Lower East Side with a tray full of raw chicken and a tiny grill, feeding the neighborhood.

3.) There are no stop lights…and finally (and ironically), New York drivers stop for pedestrians.

4.) The bridges are packed with walkers, old and young, trekking to the outer-bouroughs in the cold. Everyone is talking.

5.) The busses are free. And packed. Everyone is talking (though I did see a gnarly cuss-out yesterday…still talking, though.)

And to all those who are dealing with more than a blackout (flooding, displacement, wreckage) be certain not to blackout, internally. We are warriors. We make magic from mess, we make cake from crumbs, we make a tough time look like nothing but a time-out. 

Soldier on.