Dancing in the Street

"Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

Max Ehrmann-"Desiderata"

In Anne of Green Gables the heroine of the book- that would be Anne- says that each day is a new day with no mistakes in it. Despite yesterday's misadventures I woke this morning from a much needed ten hours of sleep (experts say you cannot catch up on sleep- they are wrong- as experts usually are) feeling... at the very least rested. The first 4 hours of the day were spent calling and following up with voicemails left for dozens of people from Boston to LA. No one seemed inclined to call back but I kept slugging away.. Fortified with rest and many cups of my much maligned but oh-so-necessary espresso I worked my way through the list figuring that I would reach a point where the scales would tip and I would be fielding return calls left and right- eventually. Or at least make a lot of people feel sorry they'd missed my call.

I trotted off to Westchester for a set of appointments and a tornado. Yep. Pouring rain of near-tsunami proportions and me with NO umbrella- but I have been rained on before (yesterday, for example) the rain would not kill me.. The cab that took me to the train spared me the usual gospel program or dance station instead playing the whisky-sweet voice of Miss Nina Simone.

When I arrived at Grand Central the station was mobbed- unusual for 9:00 on a Thursday night- Morgan Freeman was filming a movie- getting a shoeshine actually from the 1st shoeshine guy *I* have ever seen that had all his teeth and model good looks and appearing to be straight out of Seattle grunge band. A studied grunginess to be sure. I walked past the set- movie shoots are not such a big deal here- I did notice Mr. Freeman was shorter than I would have imagined- but everyone I have ever met who I had seen in a movie is much smaller in person- the camera adds ten feet yanno. The funny part was that as part of the shot set-up they had commuter extras poised along the ramp leading up to the street level. RIGHT out of Central casting and all dressed in black- a Noah's ark of types- 2 Asians, 2 Blacks, 2...well you get the idea. They looked like a murder of multi-cultural crows. It was so contrived- each pair 4 feet from the next- some holding prop cups of coffee... New York is SO real and the contrast of we who live here juxtaposed against this faked-up scene just made me smile.

As I descended to take the crosstown shuttle I heard the unmistakeable strains of a piece by Bartok being played by a lone, sweet guitar. I stood stock still at the top of the stairs listening- the notes floating over my head and missed my train to allow the piece to finish.

On the west side I was greeted by yet another crowd listening to a beautifully big black woman belting out "Sexual Healing" with a crowd clapping and yeah-ing her on and a motley crew of singing back-up girls for added musical weight.

Into the station and a man playing the violin- elderly, in black sweat pants yanked up well past his waist and eyes closed he serenaded the crowd oblivious to tips or subway delay announcements, or the interesting counterpoint of the black girl's music as it drifted down the stairs, bound up in the sounds he made.

I am always struck by what I pass by each day- gratefully aware of the richness of the patterns this life in New York affords me. I saw more live music going crosstown than most folks do in a year. Cities need greenspaces, and art and music in and amongst the clutter and concrete. It was sorely missing in LA and the city seemed emptier and ...less for it. The soaring whiteness of the buildings and palm trees and blue skies do not compare to the beauty of the sounds that soar through a New York subway station. A lullabye for souls that in all likelihood have been sorely tried in surviving the city that never sleeps. A serenade rewarding you for just making it through the day. Then I think of a nursery rhyme- "Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes- and she shall have music wherever she goes." And so she does. If she lives here.
:) X