27 august 2018
One time I was determined to visit my favorite piece in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, in the Temple Room, and I didn't realize the museum was about to close, and we had to go through rooms where they'd already turned off the lights to make our way out.
I try to visit this one every time I'm at the museum; I just feel calmer whenever I get to see him. He dates from the 12th century and is made of Japanese cypress with gold. Museum materials call him Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Light.
I feel most at home in these sort of neglected, utilitarian places, the unrenonvated upper floors of the 1960s-built university library, the 190th Street A train station in New York, the wide stairways where I used to study while awaiting a ride home in high school. All of them good places to see autumn foliage, come to think of it.
The view of New York I miss most is sunrise on a cold Sunday morning, as viewed from the elevated section of the 7 train in Queens. On the way out to Flushing, maybe.