Scare in Midtown Manhattan

I was in the Midtown Manhattan area today, and the scene was confusion. Apparently, a steam explosion near Grand Central Station had rocked buildings in the area. People were gathered outside buildings, and police were shouting at bystanders to move on, as emergency vehicles rushed to the area. There was a great plume of smoke rising to the sky. Hopefully, there were no people seriously injured.

I stood for a while watching reporters; I was standing next to an Associated Press reporter who was making arrangements to pick up someone's camera, apparently to use in a future story. Another reporter was taking pictures of the pictures taken with someone's cell phone. I decided to head home, especially as there might be an issue with the air quality.

Baruch Hashem, it was not terrorist related. Nevertheless it was a scare. As Lipa says, "ah be me leibt".

As the blogosphere returns to business as usual(actually, it never stopped), I am reminded that as important and vexing as issues we speak of are, perspective can decrease their intensity.