One foot in front of the other: The world just got smaller

On occasion, the blogosphere and the real world intersect in wonderful and unexpected ways. For some time, Ted Taylor and I have visited each other's blogs and have kept up an e-mail correspondence. Ted makes his home in Kyoto, Japan, with his fiancee. He has lived in Japan for more than a dozen years. He teaches yoga and English and also does translations.

This world traveler, cut from the same cloth as Gary Snyder, recently wrote to tell me that he would be returning Stateside to visit family out West and in Vermont. Part of his itinerary would include a stop of a couple days in Manhattan, where he was born (though he grew up mostly in New Mexico) . He suggested a get-together, to which I happily agreed.

We spent Saturday and Sunday traipsing through the East Village and Greenwich Village, revisiting places that Ted hadn't seen in years and exploring new ones that may inspire future sojourns in the city.

We met my friend Jim "Mosaic Man" Power, who asked Ted to contribute to an artwork-in-progress on a light standard at Astor Place. Ted cemented a Japanese 1-yen coin into the mosaic. This most insignificant piece of small change -- worth just a fraction of a cent -- has bought Ted a permanent place in the East Village landscape. Hopefully, in years to come it'll serve as a beacon for Ted's further forays into Manhattan.

The rent has been paid.