ORIGINAL ALSO AVAILABLE - EMAIL to INQUIRE: cbukster123@yahoo.com Traditionally, during the holiday season, we gather together, reunite. And for a brief few weeks each year, we go out of our way to visit with relatives and dear friends to exchange gifts or simply share a meal, all in an effort to ‘make up for lost time.’ For those we cannot be with, we send a personal note or card, wishing them well. We look forward to and cherish these days because once again, our paths cross, our journeys intersect, leading us home. Many years ago, poet-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson offered the following words on how to live our lives wisely: "To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom." In our present day and age, time is a precious commodity, making it all the more difficult to put Emerson’s prose into practice. Many of us dedicate years building elaborate plans in pursuit of our goals, only to have them slip through our fingers, largely unfulfilled. We wonder how time could have passed so quickly, and whether we, during our journey, paid enough attention to our loved ones, and their hopes and dreams. The builders of the original Pennsylvania Station in NYC, much like the architects of the great cathedrals of Europe, fully grasped the intent of Emerson’s words: people need a space, within the midst of daily life, that elevates the spirit, lifts the eyes skyward toward something more profound, the eternal, if only for a brief moment. Demolition of Penn Station, which opened in 1910, was already underway by the time I was born. Within a few years, a "newly improved" Penn Station would emerge, complete with Madison Square Garden protruding above. Many New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike protested its demise. But time marches on, the future awaits! And what a future it has been.