A Parade in Manhattan

It was a glorious moment, the parade featuring the Yankees' MVP Hideki Matsui. For some reason, the sight of Mr. Matsui waving from an open car reminded me of a Walt Whitman poem. I looked up the poem, and here is the first verse:

"OVER the western sea, hither from Niphon come,
Courteous, the swart-cheek’d two-sworded envoys,
Leaning back in their open barouches, bare-headed, impassive,
Ride to-day through Manhattan."

This was written by Whitman in honor of the first Japanese visitors to the US, who paraded down Broadway 150 years ago at the opening of the Meiji Era. The poem celebrated the idea of the one-ness of the world.

I think 150 years is a very long time between parades, but the outpouring of enthusiasm was just the same.

As Whitman put it, hurray for geography! We are all in it together.