There's a beautiful secret... in the City of New York

 

Footprints on a snowy building’s ledge, high above a wintry New York intersection, lead to an open window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And every year, on the twelfth of January,
we like to remember the things that might not have been,
and instead, fortunately, have been...

A metal fence post in a snowy landscape provides a place to rest for a blue bird.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"It was the twelfth of January, the coldest day in the year."


Snow falls gently during the night on a deserted New York Street lit by glowing street lamps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On that chilly day, a newborn was found... near a hospital in the Village, St. Vincent's Hospital.
He was very tiny, and very sick. And very strange.

 

A black and white photograph of the front of St. Vincent’s hospital.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In November, perhaps that same year, or the year before...
somebody had died in that hospital, whose name was... Dylan Thomas.

A poet was dying, a dream was being born.
 

A long stemmed red rose lies on a bed of sparkling snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why was that infant left there?
Was he abandoned to die? Was he left there to be found,
to be brought into the hospital and nursed?

We don’t know.
As he said about himself, he was born, and he survived.

 

A heart-shaped indentation in the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When he was found, he was wrapped in rags, like a present.

 An intricate crystal snowflake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that present was brought to a world that was beginning to exist, and needed a soul.

 

An empty pipe tunnel with a waterfall of ice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deep, secret and invisible was that world. And frightened.

"Those who dwelt here dwelt in fear and isolation.
This was a land of lost hope…of twisted dreams, a land of despair."

Two candle flames glow in the darkness.

 

 

Also in that world, nobody wanted him, because of the way he looked.

 

A snow angel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Throw him out," they said. "He's not our problem."
"We don’t want him, leave him to the topsiders."

 

A solitary withered oak leaf lies in the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The unique, strange infant, weak and sick, wrapped in rags like a present,
cried for three straight days. And no one thought he would survive.
 

Snowflakes fall to the ground in a foggy landscape

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there was a strength in him…


A beautiful lion’s head, covered in a dusting of snow, looks to the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many years after, he could say, about the world that had abandoned him:

"I’ve seen your world. There’s no place for me in it…
I know what I am. Your world is filled with frightened people.
And I remind them of what they’re most afraid of…
Their own ignorance…Their aloneness."
 

A line of solitary footprints in the snow disappear into the horizon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Above", people, due to ignorance, reject what is unknown, unexpected , and therefore, frightening.


But deep, deep "Below", people are able to overcome their ignorance,
to look beyond, and find compassion which defeats aloneness.
 

A heart inscribed in a field of snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Yes, Vincent was different, and people are terribly afraid of what they don't know.
But soon, very soon afterward, the people accepted Vincent
and grew to love the very differences that at first made them so afraid."
 

A white cumulus cloud shaped like a lion cub drifts in a blue sky.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, on the twelfth of January, it’s good to remember the things that might not have been,
and have been instead… in the City of New York,
which hides a secret down Below…


A heart-shaped section of grass shows through blanket of snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in this crazy fandom that dares to dream and make impossible things real…


A snow heart held in the palm of a hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in our souls, filled with hope no matter what, because the lives we live Above
have their roots deep, deep Below, where all of us have a beautiful secret.

 

A Y-shaped branch holds a a snow heart.

 

Happy Birthday, Vincent.

 

 

 

 

January 12, 2010

S

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quotes and excerpts from the Beauty and the Beast Episodes:
~ Once upon a time in the city of New  York
~ Dead of Winter
~ God bless the child.