The Ghostly Pandemic

The words “Grand Central Station” evoke visions of crowds and noise. Massive groups of people moving chaotically through a vast open space in the middle of a city; all somehow managing to get where they need to go. Never ending energy.

But that vision of Grand Central, that meaning of the words, is currently lost.

The pandemic has turned Grand Central Station into a space more closely resembling a Sunday morning walk downtown before church. The trains are half full. The platforms are not crowded. You can successfully roll a bowling ball through the main terminal, or out on 42nd Street.

There are those who say the pandemic has permanently changed how we live. They say now that we have learned a new way, we won’t go back to old the way. I am not so sure. The old way may have looked and felt like chaos, but it worked and that’s what we remember.