With this parting thought, I drag my frayed shoe box through the building, into the elevator, onto the street.  I stand in a pink vapor, waiting for a taxi to rescue me.  My heart aches.  I feel naked and alone on a NYC street corner, except for a single pink slip clinging to my body.  But the cars whiz by me as I am now invisible. I lean against steel, as the new icon of 2009.  Workers, standing in front of office buildings.  Worldly belongings shoved into torn cardboard boxes.  No pink slip.

But somehow, at this dark moment, I see that the expanse of 9th Avenue is my Red Sea.  I am liberated!  I know I will  travel through rough, frightening  terrain.  In this case, oncoming traffic. With all my soul, I understand, the journey of my life has finally begun.