It was a fine thing, being here on the running track, skirting around the duck couple who perambulate daily on the track, oblivious or uncaring about the thunder of runner’s feet flying by them giving the ducks wide berth. I didn’t need to be thinking about the news of the day. Rather than dwelling on Obama’s appointment for Supreme Court Justice and the fact that the Right will do their red-faced and shouty bit and look even stupider and whiter than they already are I can pause momentarily—or for as long as I like—and watch the turtles poke their snouts above the water's surface along the shoreline. I shook the unpleasant news that scientists had created a green-glowing monkey who passed along the gene to its offspring, making it easier to produce animals “…with versions of human disease for medical research.”

On the east side of the reservoir there is a boulder with a bronze plaque that reads: These cherry trees presented to the City of New York in memory of Otto Marx 1870-1963. I can’t find him in Land ’O Google. Maybe he was just a man. A kind man who deserved a grove of cherry trees named in his honor. That would be enough for me.