New York City, October 4, 2016

★★★★★ The dim morning made it easy to linger sick in bed, but it broke apart into an afternoon so insistently sunny it was necessary to get out. Breeze bustled among the people bustling along the street. The sun coming through the travertine verticals on the side of the opera house left regular slashes of brightness on the irregular top shoots of the trees in the manmade grove beside it. The sounds of footsteps and bits of conversation carried distinctly. An immaculate-looking spaniel, black and lustrous white, passed through a sidewalk detour full of reflected light. Everywhere there was something more interesting to look at than the phone. Even the children pulled themselves away from the screens and went down to the forecourt with scooters. The dome of the older boy’s dull silver-gray helmet was filled with the colors of the sky and the sunlit world.