Folded thought of the day:

Greetings on this Monday.  I hope you all had a great 
weekend and that the coming week has something special 
in store for you.

Things got a little funky for me this weekend.  I was heading 
into the city yesterday and on the way to the subway station my 
path was completely blocked by the New York City Marathon.  
I literally could not cross the street to enter the station 
because of a raging river of long-distance runners.  It 
was such a strange and interesting sight.  It was a good 
thing I was in no major rush because I wasn't going 
anywhere.  And I imagined what would happen if I actually 
tried to cross the street.  I pictured myself getting 
caught in the current and not being able to stop until 
the finish line.  And given the fact that I'm not in the 
best shape, I doubt I would have survived.  So I just 
decided to hang out and see what happened.  

The street was lined with cheering people, urging on the 
runners, giving them water, enjoying the beautiful 
day.  Generally, when a stranger hands you a free glass 
of water in Brooklyn you tend not to accept.  But this 
was a different day and one of the runners even gave 
the woman who provided the beverage a kiss on the cheek.  

And there was this great marching band providing a very 
funky soundtrack for the procession.  It was so cool.  
The sun was out, everybody who wasn't running was either 
dancing or cheering or just smiling.  It certainly 
made me feel proud of where I live and it gave me an 
amazing realization I have every once in a while -- the 
feeling that you know you're alive right now on this 
day, in the middle of a million other days.  And I just 
stood there for about an hour, basking in this feeling 
and feeling the sunshine and listening to the music.  

And then the runners started to thin out and I could have 
easily crossed the street, but I decided to stick around 
for a while longer.