"I Love To See The Temple . . ." (New York-Day 3)

Today we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As this was our first excursion uptown, I was pleasantly surprised to note that uptown subway stations are much cleaner than downtown ones. In fact, the entire city seems to get cleaner as you head north. We walked through Central Park on our way to the Met. It is a beautiful, green oasis right smack in the middle of a thriving metropolis. Walking through the park was like a breath of fresh air for a small town girl like me.


And the Met was amazing. Patti, Esther and I must be art geeks too because seeing an actual VanGogh was very exciting! We saw some amazing things and had some fun at the same time.





After the Met, we headed uptown to the Manhattan Temple. Unfortunately for us, the #1 uptown subway was harder to find than we had expected. We kept asking people where to find it, they would point out a direction, and we would walk. We went up stairs and down stairs and up stairs and down stairs and up more stairs and down even more stairs. I was like a labyrinth down there! This was the point where I started to feel a bit overwhelmed by the city. It felt like we were never going to find the right train! Finally we got to the right place and were able to ride the train uptown. When we got off at the station, I took a big breath, knowing that now we would have to climb to street level and begin the search for the temple (Did I mention that the addresses in Manhattan don't make all that much sense? A building can be between 8th and 9th street and have a street number of 231. It makes finding things a bit of a challenge.) But when I stepped out of the subway and looked up, there it was, right in front of us. I have never been so relieved in all my life. It was so enormously comforting to see something familiar, a shelter in a strange city, that my eyes welled up.


After our session we chatted with some of the temple workers for a few minutes. One of the ladies told us she drives an hour and a half each way to get to the temple. I was struck by how dedicated these people are. Not only do they take the time to drive to the temple to do sessions, but they travel in order to serve as temple workers as well. Unlike here, there is not an abundant supply of retired men and women to staff the temple. People my age are temple workers. The church may build the temples, but it is the members in the area that run it. It gave me a good reminder of how blessed we really are. On a clear day, I can see four temples from the top of my neighborhood. And the closest one is a ten minute drive from my doorstep. The members in the Manhattan Temple district are more often than not much farther away and yet they still come to the temple and volunteer to serve. I think I could learn something from these folks.