Last Saturday we were in NYC. My mom, her friend, my sister, niece, youngest son and I met my friend Ro and her son to see Tarzan the Broadway show. Of course, it was wonderful.
Originally, I planned for my 3 older sons to be with us but they declined as if I asked them to come hunting for rats in the NYC subways.
We went on a "bus trip" which was great because I didn't have to worry about driving, and traffic, etc.
My son and the little kids liked the show but they moaned it was loud and they were sorry there wasn't time to spend at my friend's home that lives in Manhattan.
Such is life. What we give is seldom appreciated. What we prevent is noticed. What we love cannot be transformed for another to feel the exact same way.
All we can do is create memories. I know how wonderful memories can be and the reason they are wonderful is usually rooted in the people you are with and the feelings that get passed around and all the other stuff becomes wonderful because of that.
I have to say I have seen so many Broadway shows that I am less than thrilled to see another, but once there I really appreciate the talent, the extraordinary effort and the energy that goes into these shows. It didn't take more than 15 minutes for me to "get" the metaphors to real life as my body tingled with goose bumps and my eyes swelled with tears. I wish my young son could see all that this was....
I thought about the actors and what they had to go through to get there..the competition, the hours and hours of practice and the patience, the lessons, the hoping, maybe even the praying. I thought about the original author and how his ideas of what it means to be a parent, a non biological child, a community of people so different than you, acceptance and non acceptance and also the few times in life when serendipity and the feeling of things being just right without really knowing why forming on paper and then on stage and then in songs and then in movies, etc, etc...
I thought about how every single one of us in one way or another can understand all of that whether we are in a sheltered world where we belong or do not belong, whether we feel like a member or alone, or whether we feel like both. Can we understand the feeling of meeting someone and feeling like we are a lot like them, even if they are from way across oceans and do not speak the same language? Is this feeling important, imperative, or just a feeling of familiarity? Why does it feel like a message from beyond? Why does it feel like it matters so much? What constitutes a family? Is it our biological children and parents or is it a world larger than that? I know how I feel connected to my parents, my grandparents, my husband and my kids but I also know I feel connected to people and places I have never spent any amount of significant time with and this is intriguing and also hard to understand. Maybe we are all connected. Maybe that is why I get so nuts when I do not understand so many people and their ways and lifestyles as if I should understand it, as if they should see what I see.
We took the time to wisk ourselves downtown to Chinatown (in a cab that took forever but with a really nice driver) for dim sum before the show after stopping at Rockefeller center to ride to the top of the building ..69 stories...to view the entire city from a roof top, glass enclosed terrace. The city was awesome. Thousands of buildings, two of which are no longer there as well as it's many inhabitants, yet time goes on, the city goes on, the world, the families, the terrorists....all go on. I started to think of not only those thousands and hundreds of thousands of buildings but of the many more rooms and offices and individuals that make it all perservere...and they are only the ones that had the stamina to stay there, to push and insist and survive. I thought about the food chain and those at the top and why they are at the top.
All these thoughts before lunch. No wonder I was starving. Then, in one building in Chinatown a sea full of asians with some non asians thrown in for flavor grabbing and chewing and slurping up all the goodness that someone thought to bring to our attention. The food is so good and we ate like a Chinese Henry VIII. It all cost less than 10.00 a person, too. Truly one of the few bargains in NYC. (I know the idea of a bargain is all relative).
My son and his little friends love dim sum. I love it too. I love Chinatown..the sheer number of Asians and the ability to watch hundreds of people who could care less that I was watching and thinking about them; their food, their clothing, their desire to be Americans.
Back uptown on the subway to see the show and then we walked to the restaurant for dinner.
On the way home after a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Aqua Terra in Manhattan I slept like a child dreaming along the way. Our dinner consisted of homemade enocci, butternut squash risotto with marscapone cheese, HOMEMADE fennel sausage with greens, fried calamari, clams and spaghetti and great big cold manhattans and full bodied wines. ...and of course we had dessert...the kids and grandmom had Italian sundaes, and I had roasted pears and pound cake with gelato. Needless to say, one week later, I thought about all of that and wanted more.
Tonight with roasted chicken with olives and garlic and chicken wings with ground sun dried tomatoes and fig sauce and roasted asparagus we also had butternut squash risotto which was delicious.
I am planning another day in NYC...a day with dim sum for lunch and a relaxing surprising excellent dinner. ... a day with hundreds of people to watch and things to think about for days on end.
I am glad Tarzan got out of that jungle for a change. He really needed to experience the city like a complex, civilized human being.
As my kids go exploring I try to pull on my end of our tug of war game. I know where I want them to be....with me, and yet, I know also they need to be wherever they need to be to grow and learn and live and be connected....to lots of people and places and things previously unknown to them.
|
