New York, I love You but it's complicated

"New York is not a city. It's a test. And unlike most tests, passing it doesn't mean you're done".

It will raise your rent and break your nervous system a little. It will also keep you up until 3am on a sidewalk with a stranger, a slice in hand, convinced you're rewriting the world. You told everyone you'd be here three, maybe four years. Too loud, too dirty, too much. That's what everyone said, and you said it too. And then somehow you stayed, and kept changing in ways a quieter city would never have asked of you.

Three times a year, we gather at  Madame X, in Greenwich Village, a little worn, a little glamorous, full of people with something to say.

We've talked about why this city feels like home. We've leaned into the dark, the chaos, the wild nights.…