Photo of the Day: End-of-Winter Dreams, Bryant Park, NYC

Late yesterday morning, I was passing Bryant Park when I took the accompanying picture. I was surprised that so many people came out for this ultimate winter scene—we’re still only two-thirds through the season, but it has been so mild (the 3.2 inches of snow that fell in Central Park on Feb. 13 were the most since 2022) that it feels like spring will come early this year.

The organizers of the park’s “Winter Village,” organized by Bank of America, seem to be acknowledging this: Activity on this 17,000- sq. ft. rink will cease after March 3.

With ongoing climate change, the moments when children and their parents can enjoy skating and just hanging out are passing, like the sweet dreams of youth and innocence, always too evanescent.

Quote of the Day (Sara Teasdale, on the Ecstasy of Winter Skaters)

“Across the lake the skaters
Flew to and fro,
With sharp turns weaving
A frail invisible net.
In ecstasy the earth
Drank the silver sunlight;
In ecstasy the skaters
Drank the wine of speed;
In ecstasy we laughed
Drinking the wine of love.”— American poet Sara Teasdale (1884-1933), “A Winter Bluejay,” in Rivers to the Sea (1915)
 
Well, maybe this is more of a collective urban experience than what Sara Teasdale had in mind when she wrote these verses a little over a century ago. (There wasn’t much room for “the wine of speed” on this crowded rink.)
 
But plenty of people experienced the ecstasy of ice skating when I visited New York’s Bryant Park when I took this photo in February 2018. It’s not quite winter yet, but it’s getting there, and some areas of upstate New York and other northern areas may already be witnessing the kind of scene the poet had in mind.