Living on Manhattan Island, I'm surrounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem Rivers - all of which I go to find solace and peace. It's especially calming to go the Hudson River Park and watch the Hudson flow peacefully upward, void of worry and stress. I can't describe how beautiful the East River is when the sun rises over it. The river seems to welcome the sun by trying to reflect the grandeur back to the skies. Again, the calm is so overpowering that the surroundings are engulfed into it. It's sort of ironic how calm these rivers are when the island itself feels like a raging typhoon everyday. Perhaps not ironic but necessary; perhaps they anchor the island and its people to some sense of life otherwise lost by the tall towers and busy streets.
But the rivers of New York do not meander. Nor do the people.
While I have seen pictures of the Amazon River meandering, it was just in a class presentation and felt relatively meaningless in eighth grade. Browsing through Google Maps, I came across a river running through Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, Canada. It's called Peace River - a fitting name because it seems it has been left largely untouched for many many years. And there I saw through the satellite images that Peace River meandered.
I love how the term "meander" is so scientific in reference to rivers, yet it's so symbolic of everything else. Of how the rivers are free to run wild, how they take all and every type of turns, how they go across all sorts of landscapes, how their path changes so much, but eventually, they end up where they need to be.
And perhaps, that's why the rivers of New York don't meander. And perhaps, that's why the people of New York don't meander.
While this is a gross generalization, it's not far-fetched. People do wake up, get dressed, go to work, go to dinner, go to clubs, go home, and repeat. And it's so mechanical. And it's so lifeless. It's so similar to the path of the Hudson; a straight path (almost) from start to finish. No meandering.
The Peace River. You see how in the center, there seems to be a horseshoe of water bent out of shape? That used to be part of the river. And that was meandering. Sure, the river let that part go and reconnected to itself in a straight path, however, that disconnected part was once a part of the river and its history...much like the meanderings in people's lives.
