(July 15, 2012) NEW YORK CITY — As you can see from the photo above, I figured out a way to get around the country that’s even cheaper than Greyhound. Same amount of legroom, too.
I spent the day in Manhattan today, wandering with a friend from Central Park to Teddy Roosevelt Park to two good vegan places, with a brief detour to Land Of Buddha on MacDougal Street in the West Village. And I realized something: I’m a New Yorker. This is where I want to live.
As much as I loved New Orleans, and as much as I want to spend a lot of time there, it’s New York City that feels like home. It’s been so long since someplace really felt like home to me that I think I should pay attention. Of course I’ve had “a home,” meaning the place where my wife and kids and I lived. But I’m referring to the cities in which we lived. I always felt like a short-timer in all those places, even when that wasn’t true. But walking the streets of New York, I feel like I belong here. I mean, where else can you walk down a street lined with tall buildings that ends at a cliff?
Or find a Pet Fetish van?
OK, that one’s a little creepy. But all in all, I love this city.
That said, I do intend to spend far more time in New Orleans than I did during part one of the tour. And I still have the rest of the country to visit in part two, which will begin in late August or early September, depending on whether or not I make it to the Detroit Jazz Festival.
It does look like I’ll be on my own for part two of the tour, rather than traveling with a friend as I’d thought might happen. Given that I expect to be gone much longer for the second leg than the first, I’ll need to find better ways to deal with the loneliness that hit me a few weeks ago and never really left. For one thing, I need to get my daily meditation practice back. I think staying in State College for a month will help me do that. I hope I’ll be able to then carry my practice into the tour, although I failed almost completely to do that during the first leg.
In the next week or so I’ll start putting together the itinerary for the rest of the tour. But if you’re reading this and you live in the Midwest or anywhere west of that, please consider hosting me and suggesting someone to interview in your town. Thanks!
I’ll leave you with this guy, who looks grim but not unfriendly:
(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)
You have that “clouds parted” sound in your voice!
“It’s been so long since someplace really felt like home to me that I think I should pay attention.”
Oh, definitely. That feeling of home is so important. As for New Orleans, I foresee many happy visits in your future.
Meditation…….my grandmother, when touting a favorite cleaning product, used an expression which I apply to meditation: “Couldn’t keep house without it!” I’m old enough to have some perspective on my life, and can say, without question, that learning to meditate was the most important thing I’ve ever done. However lame that must sound, it’s really true.
Enjoy the rest of your New York summer!