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Goodbye, New York

Goodbye, New York

Last updated on: July 8, 2026 at 8:11 pm by Michael Jimenez

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Goodbye, New York 2026-07-08T20:11:36-04:00 Michael Jimenez

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When this post appears I should just be back from my first trip to New York. We planned this trip over a year ago at the request of my youngest son. We did not originally plan to be there on the 4th of July but then thought that might be a memorable time for this trip especially with it being the 250th birthday of the US. We also did not realize the World Cup and Taylor Swift’s wedding would also be occurring. (Some might wonder if my wife, who is a huge Taylor Swift fan, planned this, but I think this is more of a Swiftie intuition than anything else). Regardless, all these things happening clearly made it memorable.

We were around Madison Square Garden when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce just got married. The Empire State Building shined blue to celebrate them. In addition, the whole city was in a celebratory mood for America’s birthday.

As noted in last month’s post, I made sure that I stopped by the Chelsea Hotel because of Patti Smith’s classic Just Kids, which documents her time there surrounded by a who’s who of musicians, writers and poets including Leonard Cohen. I have spent the last few years reading rock history and it was pretty surreal to walk the same steps as them.

A commemorative plaque for Leonard Cohen outside of the Hotel Chelsea. I missed going to the Café, but it was a special moment to walk around the 1st floor.

I ended up having a quick conversation with my sons about sacred space. I am not sure they fully get it. Weirdly enough it happens more intuitively than just claiming this space is holy so be on your best behavior. My talk happened as we sat in St. Patrick Cathedral, which was stunning. Since the boys are not Catholic I think they did not know what to do. However, I attempted to point out that people from all around worship here and the many symbols of the place mean something.

I got lost in the grandeur of St. Patrick’s Cathedral because of the beauty of the architecture and all the symbols.

For all the planning we did about a year before our trip, we ended up seeing things that were not on the agenda. For example, we stopped by the New York Public Library, which featured Thomas Jefferson’s drafts of the Declaration of Independence. We went to visit the Library to see the famous lions and the original Winnie the Pooh, but once I saw that the Declaration was featured as a special event for the 250th, I knew I had to stop to see it. Seeing Jefferson’s handwritten document 250 years later felt like a sacred moment in a historic sense.

Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence was an added bonus to our trip.

There was much to see at the Library but the highlight was personal items of Charles Dickens, including his writing desk. I am very proud that I am raising a young Dickens’ scholar who has read many of his most famous novels. I am not sure we are traveling to Europe any time soon, so this was great to see while we are in New York. As I noted in a previous blog post I cited, the work on the religious Dickens has been interesting to read and connect it to themes in his books, which I have done with my oldest son.

My son is here with his favorite writer’s desk. It was nice to see how excited he was to see this item (I was excited too).

We also spent a few hours looking at art work by Van Gogh, Kahlo, and Warhol among others at MOMA. The art that was featured was some of the most memorable around the world. Reading Russ Ramsey’s books recently helped me to look for the sacred in the art work (even those artists who are not necessarily religious). I could not help but think how the crowds surrounded Van Gogh’s The Starry Night that there was something sacred happening. As Carol Barry writes in her book, it was clear that the Catholic priest and writer Henri Nouwen understood this point. Even when Van Gogh turned from explicitly sacred objects, he found the divine presence in the ordinary. What that revealed was a compassionate God, the sacred in the most ordinary.

Perhaps the most important travel tip I received about my visit comes from the late photographer Bill Cunningham. He was by all accounts a man who loved to shoot pictures. His greatest gift was taking pictures of fashion on the street, highlighting how styles appear as people walk to their destinations around 5th Avenue. There was nothing ordinary about this fashion! My wife and I would often point and say “Bill Cunningham” when we saw someone whose fashion stood out in the crowd.

Cunningham had a democratic view of fashion that centers the wonderful 2010 documentary about his life (thanks to my colleague Dr. J. Torres for insisting I watch this film). He lived, by all accounts, at the most modest of means, and did not appreciate high fashion being uppity toward street fashion. However, it is in the later part of the film when the topic of religion is brought up that features what might be the most revealing moment about the photographer’s life. When asked about his views on religion, he gets very quiet, pausing what seems like for infinity, commenting that it is very important, and somewhat deflecting the question by saying he liked to look at the women’s hats. Evidently he was a consistent, frequent parishioner to Manhattan’s St. Thomas More. What I appreciated about this moment was that his sudden vulnerability about a topic that actually had weight, a pause that made me and my wife somewhat emotional. A powerful lesson here is that for someone who made time for the sacred in the most modern of worlds, also found so much joy and beauty in the world outside of the church.

Finally, on the flight home, I am going to watch the new documentary about recent rock legend Jeff Buckley, who died tragically at 30 in 1997. Here my other son is responsible since he recommended I listened to Buckley’s music. He explained to me that his music is pretty emotional. I was blown away by the experience. I wish I would have taken the time to stop at Buckley’s apartment in New York to take a picture to mark the memory (I did a lot of that). Buckley, like Cunningham, became a legend in this New York world. At the very least, I will listen to his cover of Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which some say helped gain the song its popularity. As a recent article pointed out, Buckley’s performances felt like a religious experience. In a clip from the documentary Buckley pronounces words of reverence toward Leonard Cohen, and I felt the same thing wandering the Hotel Chelsea.

As I pack my bags, I am glad that I had moments on this visit to reflect on the sacred through what is best about New York—its art.

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