3 Feb 2022

The great hall is quite a bit smaller than we imagined and awfully quiet. Bags are checked and rechecked. Books are seen but not felt. A sense of urgent calm sweeps over me (that midtown feeling), starting slowly and careening forth into something huge, something that lifts up.

A man in all black stands in front of a gigantic lion statue, the ones outside of the New York Public Library�s main branch. Small mounds of snow and water puddles surround him.

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