Escaping the City

I have never had a car in the city.  The luxury of having a car always sounded like more of a nuisance.  Call me converted because having a car now especially during the summer has provided some fun excursions on the weekend (not to mention much easier Trader Joe's trips).  It's probably like that first time you get a washer/dryer in your apartment; it's hard to go back.  One such trip recently was to Bedford, NY in the Hudson River Valley.  What feels like miles away from the hustle and bustle of the city, this quaint town is about a 90 minute drive (also easily accessible via Metro North). The highlight is Dia:Beacon, a massive modern art museum housed in 300,000 square foot former Nabisco factory.  The space alone allows for works of art you can't find in NYC. After you get your fill of art, be sure to walk Main Street to stop in to the many small galleries.  You also can't beat the picturesque Roundhouse for dinner which overlooks a waterfall.  Get out before the summer is over!

A Dangerous Game

What makes people who have everything going for them, risk the possibility of losing it all?  I'm interested in athletes who have millions on the table, only to squander it by unwise choices.  I'm going to eliminate the extreme example which would be Aaron Hernandez because clearly there's more going on there than just making poor decisions.  Yesterday we learned about the year suspension for the Arizona Cardinal's Daryl Washington for another violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy.  Now whether smoking pot should warrant a year's suspension is a whole other matter in itself, but why would someone take that risk?  We saw it with Josh Gordon as well, a guy on his way to being one of the top receivers in the league, now in danger of missing the entire season as well because of smoking pot.  These are star players with previous violations who now lose a precious year in their already short lifespan of being in the NFL.  So why do athletes like Gordon and Washington continually make poor decisions?  Stupidity is too easy an explanation.  They didn't get where they are today by being stupid.  Perhaps it's helpful to look at the qualities that are needed to be a good football player.  There's the given which includes athleticism but how about the ability to play with reckless abandon?  The great linebackers throw themselves into the middle of the action looking to blow up a play.  Receivers can not play with the fear of getting hit when they go across the middle into the mouth of the defense.  This same disregard for consequences does not work outside the field of play.  The same qualities which make a great player on the field will doom him off if he's not able to separate the two.  Most learn how to switch it off and on.  The few that don't are playing a dangerous game. 

A Relative Break

Call your grandmother.  Or better yet, go visit her.  There's a special relationship between grandparent and grandchild.  Traditionally, the grandparent is not responsible for raising the grandchild and so they do not have to play the role of disciplinary.  With this removed, there's only room for love.  I remember it always being a treat visiting my grandparents, a welcome escape to a warmer climate.  I decided to make such a retreat recently.  I was lucky enough to know all four of my grandparents, but now only my paternal grandmother remains.  In a truly serendipitous moment, we realized that while I would be visiting we would be able to see the play "4000 Miles."  While we both appreciate the arts, this play would be extra special for us because of it's subject matter.  It revolves around the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson who visits her and ends up staying longer than expected.  It was a wonderful experience we shared together of when theater and life collide.  While my stay did not extend past the 5 days we had, it will be time we will not soon forget. 

Boston Strong

How can 2 words mean soo much?  1 year ago the city I will always call home was changed forever.  One of it's most cherished days of the year, a literal holiday in Boston, was desecrated.  Boston was dealt a blow that took the lives of three and affected thousands more.  While Marathon Monday always brings out the best in people, a chance to cheer on friends and family and even complete strangers who all exhibit strength and courage, last year became the most courageous marathon of them all.  Patriots' Day is a chance to remember the first battles of the American Revolutionary War, but now Patriots' Day will forever take on a much more immediate feel.  Our freedom was tested again.  Our will to move forward challenged.  But a city rose up behind the cry of 2 words...Boston Strong...that we will endure.  That we will heal.  I am proud of my city.  I am amazed by the strength of its people.  And come Monday we will run again, because that's what we do every year.

Check out a great piece E:60 did on the survivors:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=10787765

Passover

Why is tonight different from other nights?  Why do we eat unleavened bread?  We all know there are far more than just "the four questions."  Maybe tonight is a good reminder to ask the hard question why?  Perhaps we don't ask why enough because the answer is never an easy yes or no.  Why requires thought and discussion, which can't be answered in a text.  It requires a phone call.  It requires a moment between people.  Tonight as we sit down with friends and family to answer the questions of why, maybe it's worth pondering why tonight has to be different from other nights in the first place?

Inspiration from Below

You can never be quite sure when inspiration will strike.  While we make our way through the streets of the walking dead glued to their cell phones, the world around us gives us signs for those willing to see them.  While some look to the heavens, perhaps all that is needed is a look straight ahead, or down in this case.

Sleepless in the City

Sleepless on a Friday night.  Why you may ask?  Noise pollution.  No good comes from pollution.  It is threatening our very existence on this planet and right now my sanity for sleep.  How do we clean up the pollution in this city?  Do we bag it and throw it away?  What happens when the pollution is not a stray can or newspaper, but the horns from below?  The loud revelers coming home or continuing on during their drunken night of merriment.  The incessant car alarm which beeps and beeps then pauses...a peaceful respite, just long enough so that you can appreciate the silence...and then it starts again, the beep and beep.  The jackhammer in the hard pavement which drills into my head, ringing in my ears, splitting my skull in two.  They say it's the city which never sleeps and at this rate I believe it.  Who could ever sleep in this cacophony of sounds that only this city orchestra can produce.  Let me be the conductor.  The different sections of our city's instruments come to a great crescendo and then with one wave of my baton it all stops.  And I hear nothing.  I mean nothing.  Not the rev of an engine or the whine of the ambulance.  All is quiet on the eastern front and I can sleep.  I can be lost in my thoughts instead of distracted by the world around me.  Turn it off like a light switch.  It's time to go to bed.