'NowYork' in May

Since April, have you noticed the #NowYork hashtag on Instagram or other social media posts?

This is the brainchild of a group of advertising executives.

At their website, they describe the effort as "a collective made up of passionate New Yorkers and lovers of New York. Sure, COVID-19 was a setback, but now New York is back. And we've come together to inspire the world to go and enjoy all that the five boroughs have to offer."

In May 2021, I've only been to Manhattan -- as office life is beginning to (excuse the phrase) return back to normal. So although I can't speak to the other four boroughs, I've seen the #NowYork spirit in real life... and I have the photos to prove it.

Above, clockwise from top left, are images I've captured over the past month:

• Looking south on 9th Avenue from the Port Authority, on my first commuter bus ride in over a year
• The Chrysler Building, reflected in office windows across the street from my own, imitating a hoot owl
• The return of costumed Mini Mouse characters in Times Square
• Lexington Avenue imitating Abbey Road
• A Thota-Vaikuntam-tinged view of Turtle Bay Gardens
• Friends lunching on a park bench in Tudor City Greens
• A rally for Guyuna in Ralph Bunche Park, in the shadow of the U.N.
• Commerce on 42nd Street, exactly 14 months after lockdown
• (Center) Setting up for a live performance outside the "Good Morning America" studio

(A larger view of each photo can been seen in this Google Photos album.)

Visiting Manhattan last summer, my wife observed that the city, for the first time in our lives, looked vulnerable. This weekend driving up the New Jersey Turnpike and turning a bend past Newark Airport, we suddenly saw the expansive, ever-changing Manhattan skyline spread out before us at dusk. It looked both majestic and surreal. I turned to my wife and simply said, "Wow."

After the past 14 months, New York City reminds me that while people's lives are vulnerable, what people create can be deathless.

New hashtag: #WowYork