The North & NYC

If you love Game of Thrones like me, then "The North" means something to you. 

The North is the most remote part of Westeros, the seventh kingdom that's far away from the six others in both landscape and spirit. It's a vast place where honor and family mean more than power and conquest. The North is pure, honest, simple. 

And cold! Really friggin' cold! 

It's also a little bit scary -- north of The North is the land of the Night's Watch, wildlings, and white walkers -- dark forces that secretly gather in strength to lay waste to those greedy, thoughtless hedonists below. The power of the North comes from the power of its secrets, its size, and its remoteness.  As one character says, no one will ever send an army into the wastelands of The North only to get swallowed alive.

Back in the real world, the north is similarly "scary" (where do you think the concept of The North in GOT came from?). Places like Alaska, Canada, Siberia, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, and, obviously, the North Pole, seem, for the majority of people in Earth, like remote, very cold, somewhat scary, largely barren places. The north is the land of icebergs, Eskimos, igloos, hockey, and Sarah Palin (See? Scary!). The north is ... out there ... somewhere ... beyond ... 

Who would go there? Who would want to? What's even there to begin with? 

Most people don't know, don't want to find out, will never go -- and thus the power and mystery of The North endures. It's the land above, looking down at us, quietly judging those below. That's what gives The North in Game of Thrones and on planet Earth its enduring power -- it can never be fully known or understood. 

Here in NYC we have our north -- of sorts. Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, and the Bronx are, for most New Yorkers -- up there, out of sight and out of mind, places most New Yorkers won't visit unless for specific reasons. I grew up in northern Manhattan, and many people I knew from other parts of town treated me like wild man invader from a scary land.

Of course, more recently, one similar invader named Lin-Manuel Miranda came down from his native Washington Heights to produce a show about another northern Manhattan resident -- Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton and Miranda (and yours truly) are northern New Yorkers, two of whom revolutioned their respective professions (American finance and theater) and one who ... created this blog. 

But, getting back to the subject, there are interesting things happening in northern NYC: first, look at these amazing, delightful pictures of life in Washington Heights. Then, read about a brand new park in the Bronx, in Hunters Point of all places. There is such life, so many wonderful things about the northern part of this city that most New Yorkers probably don't know about.

So go north fellow New Yorkers, and discover a land you probably never appreciated before!

P.S. Here is some great, "north" content to enjoy: