Crowning Achievement

I am afraid of heights.

It is 305 feet from the ground at Ellis Island to the teetering tip of Lady Liberty's touch.

This summer, visitors will once again be able to climb the 12-story, 354 cramped steps to access the crown of the Statue of Liberty.

The crown has been closed since 9/11.

The torch, alas, has been closed since 1916 and will likely remain so.

The New York Times reported that the statue’s architect, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, “never intended or designed the Statue of Liberty as something to enter or climb.” And the claustrophobic spiral access to the crown? Only intended for maintenance workers.

According to the New York Post, a 1999 study warned that "if a fire were to start on the pedestal level, the inside of the statue would act like a chimney and smoke would suffocate anyone on the stairs or in the crown."

In his efforts to see the crown reopened, New York's Rep. Anthony Weiner argued that dangerous conditions exist across National Park Service’s holdings.

“It is tight,” he said. “It is cramped. It is hot. It probably isn’t completely safe to have everyone go up, in any numbers, at any time. But the Park Service is full of slightly dangerous things you can do.”

I think fondly of Yellowstone's geysers, of loose rocks on descending trails at the Grand Canyon.

I agree with Weiner: Legitimate concerns abbout safety should not prevent access. The Park Service should simply take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of visitors.

When the crown reopens July 4, only 10 people will access the crown at a time, with a maximum of 30 visitors per hour.

Perhaps the great achievement is this: After years of living with fear and restriction, we are unwilling to accept the forbidding threats of a dangerous world.

They say the statue sways 3 inches in the surrounding 50 mph winds.

So what?

I want to see the 62,000 pounds of her copper exterior hammered to the thickness of 3/32 inch--the width of two pennies. I want to look out the 25 windows of the crown and see the ocean where my great-grandfather arrived.

I have my ticket for October 10.

Salt Lake City Greeting

Arrived in Utah. Walked outside, the sun bright on the Wasatch. I would grab a cab to Melanie's.

"Where have you been?" the taxi driver said to me. "I've been waiting all morning for you!"

Rules for Writers

1. Cultivate a talent for collecting images.

2. Be bold and brave in all areas of your life. Go ahead. Purchase the house with the hi-gloss pink staircase.

3. Cultivate brilliant friends. On her first tour of the house, Kim named my staircase "The Esophagus."

4. Do something else besides write.

Booknotes: Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"

While in Utah recently, I finally read Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I expected to read a few pages; a friend had suggested I look at McCarthy's compression of language.

I picked the book up and never put it down.

The Road is part Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea) and part Dante (The Inferno). Somehow, with very little information and very few pages, I found I cared deeply about what happened with this father and son.

Six-Word Stories

One of my favorite online literary journals, Narrative, features literary puzzlers every week. This week's challenge: Write a six-word short story. Hemingway claimed his favorite piece of writing was a six-word story:

For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

I love the idea of a six-word story, and on my flight to Florida this Wednesday, I tried writing a few. Here are mine:

Anyone there? Toilet paper roll empty.

Vegas sunrise. Arby's coffee. Just married.

Dear Mister President: Will father return?

I do. Separate bathrooms solved everything.

Dial 911. Billy tumble-dried Maggie.

Two blue lines: whose is it?

Note to self: Dispose of gun.

Old flame, Chicago airport, flight cancelled.

French martini. Morning. Who are you?