Electric Euphoria

I'm having second thoughts about my thoughts on Liberty. Maybe it was a mistake to try and capture the essence of Liberty in a statue. The mistake of the ancients was to try and capture the essence of God in a statue. Still, Lady Liberty is inspiring and God-prescribed freedom for all humanity is my core value. Yes, that's right, I don't believe freedom is a human right, it is our Creator's prescription for us. If we do away with God, you don't get the prescribed freedom.

Just before our ferry ride we had stopped at Ground Zero. Much of the site is sealed off as construction on the freedom tower progresses. There is a slight residue of eerieness about the place, even 7 years later. Here we are posing in front of a picture of the proposed buildings.

On we went to Times Square. It is fascinating even during the day!

We hung out at Times Square for a few hours. Visiting the fabled Toys R Us that Justin De Reuck told us about. It has the ferris wheel and life-size growling T-Rex inside. This was pretty cool. Unfortunately the shop also had hundreds of growling shoppers inside, because after all, this was the Christmas shopping season and a big snow storm was headed our way.

The resulting crush was probably the most dramatic shopping experience I've had, and I wasn't even buying anything! Most of our energy was spent making sure our children weren't snatched. I decided enough was enough when I found myself standing in a pool of vomit that some overstimulated shopper had left behind. With so many people around you, you can't even see the floor.

After a visit to the busiest McDonald's in the world where the line to the ladies loo is ten times longer than the ordering line, we headed back out into the post-sunset square.

As we stood on the red illuminated steps above the ticket office, getting the tourist view of Times Square, Heather commented on how elated she was feeling. It was a chilly but beautiful New York night, no wind and the city that never sleeps had transported us into a the heart of her electric euphoria. Do they pump happy gas into Times Square? or was I feeling the addiction that draws millions to make this concrete jungle their home?