Manhattan has, as extraordinary as it is for us who live here to believe, been brought to its knees by a snowstorm. The season’s leaden skies are made even heavier by the garbage lining our roads, the film of dried salt on the sidewalks, the carcasses of fir trees, so quickly discarded after the fleeting Christmas holiday, lying there, still. Our garbage cum snow removal trucks have vanished; we wait for quotidian services that now have the aura of luxury.
Get thee to the sun, to a natural environment that is pristine and fresh! My eyes wander south, to the long sweep of Atlantic beaches off of Uruguay and Brazil, for the most part empty and untamed. The photograph above, taken near Itacare on the Brazilian coast, is gorgeous for its surfable waves, its thick Atlantic forest that stretches to the shore, its charming people, thrumming music, multicultural food.