On August 21, 2025, according to my Amazon account, I found The Soul of Central New York.
In truth, it was the author, Sean Kirst, who had truly found the soul of Central New York.
Kirst, after all, had spent a quarter century (1991-2015) as a columnist with the Syracuse Post-Standard, mastering a prose that painted a textured portrait of a city struggling through its darkest days.
Though not the book’s intention, this collection of 88 of his columns serves as a potent counterargument to those who marry their self-worth to well-branded locales. Because in one of the country’s snowiest cities, one that experienced the unending heartache of job loss and the expanding reach of poverty, the human spirit became elite.
Kirst, in his own words, noted:
Inspiration.
Honor.
Faith.
Courage.
Diligence.
Loyalty.
Love.
Triumph.
Resilience.
In short, he noted all the reasons why when many fled to the South, so many others stayed behind.
I’ll take the liberty to quote a few:
I remember the first time I went there…and I looked out—stunned—at the city skyline, at modern skyscrapers side by side with art deco towers, at the valley that wrapped Syracuse in a green embrace. It was absolutely beautiful.
The gift of (my) job was the chance, day after day, to spend time with people who had gracefully confronted potentially crushing obstacles in life, yet who had somehow embraced the simplest and most daunting of all strategies: They kept going.
(The) greatest resource (of Upstate New York cities) in the early twenty-first century is the same one that lifted them to prosperity more than 100 years ago: These are regions filled with vibrant, indomitable, and creative human beings.
In each neighbor, in every Upstate city, is our hope.
The US, at least the one of 2025, has decided that only a handful of metrics matter:
Fame.
Image.
Power.
Prestige.
Status.
Wealth.
Kirst, in having found the soul of Central New York, reminds us that around these parts, it’s okay to care about other stuff, too.
