A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
LITERATURE: Just a tiny departure from my usual dual format because topics I kept coming up with all had to do with literature. Plus, literature is near and dear to me and now is the perfect time to load up on lit. A couple of my favorite literary-related L’s I came up with for the before part are Lear (as in King) and Library Lions (as in the stone sentinels of the New York City Public Library).
When a visiting friend had an extra ticket to see Glenda Jackson and Ruth Wilson in the Broadway production of King Lear, I jumped at the offering. Closing a month early, it wasn’t a hugely popular production, one critic calling it “confoundingly muddled,” and another describing it as a “hot, heavy mess.” Despite the reviews, I enjoyed it, marveling at how anyone can memorize and perform an entire Shakespeare play. It is no easy feat. Seeing Tony-winner (and 84-year-old!) Glenda Jackson on stage got checked off my to-see-in-life list that I didn’t even know was on there. I also got to score an autograph from Ruth Wilson, one of my favorite actresses.
The New York Public Library‘s stone lions are also a symbol of literary magic. Patience and Fortitude are the names of the two Tennessee marble lions seated outside the historic library since its opening in 1911. They didn’t get their monikers until the 1930s when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia named them for the qualities he felt New Yorkers would need to survive the economic depression. Uh, sound familiar? These lions have seen a lot and just last year, were professionally cleaned and restored. I have to include a few shots I took last year of the beautiful library itself:
As for my current literature fix, I have a few to highly recommend:
I absolutely LOVED The Book of Delights and it’s the perfect antidote to feeling miserable. I’ve nearly finished White Fragility; every white person on the planet needs to read this book. I’ve learned a helluva lot about myself (talk about self-reflection). The Far Pavilions is probably my all-time favorite book and at 955 pages, it’s ideal for riding out a quarantine.
A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
KAHLO: It is near impossible to sum up in a short blog post, everything Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo was. She accomplished so much in her forty-seven years and I have great admiration for this unapologetic revolutionary. She began her painting career in 1925 after a bus accident left her bed-ridden for three months. Using a specially rigged easel and mirror, she painted many self-portraits while on her back. She found inspiration through native folk art, popular Mexican culture, and post-colonialism, exploring questions of race, gender, class, and identity. A political activist, Kahlo used her work to express statements against colonialism, sexism, and racism. Married to famous muralist, Diego Rivera, she often lived and worked in his shadow, remaining relatively unknown until the 1970s after art historians and political activists discovered her work.
Last year, we had the opportunity to see Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving, at the Brooklyn Museum, the largest U.S. exhibition of her work in ten years, and the first in the United States to display a collection of her personal belongings. (I wish I could have taken pictures, but we weren’t allowed!)
Her clothing, jewelry, hand-painted corsets and prosthetics (all incredible!), and many artifacts from her home in Mexico City, were on display–discovered and inventoried in 2004, after being locked away since her death in 1954. Kahlo and Rivera stipulated that their possessions not be disclosed until 15 years after Rivera’s death.
We were also lucky enough to catch the Viva Americana exhibit at the Whitney Museum last month. Last year, it seemed Frida popped up everywhere and it thrills me to see that she remains a symbol of resistance and justice.
KNOW THYSELF: I touched on this in both the H and I posts. Do we really know ourselves? Is it even important? The term, “know thyself” has been attributed to about a dozen Greek sages (hard to find an exact paper trail on this one) and according to the 2nd-century Greek traveler, Pausanias, the term was inscribed on the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.
Thales
Ancient Greek philosopher, Thales said knowing oneself is difficillima factu (roughly translated as this shit’s hard). Conversely, what’s easiest? “To give advice.” Yes, that’s true, as you will see from my post. Self-knowledge is considered the highest form of knowledge and is a concept that essentially went viral, traveling the globe through races, cultures, traditions, religions, teachings, and more, including art and literature.
Achieving self-knowledge is a tall order, even for the most devout seekers. And would it be worth a lifetime of dedication or a letdown like Men in Black International? (Hmm . . . my second MIB reference of the challenge . . . ) Those much smarter than me have determined the value of self-reflection: enriched emotional intelligence and greater empathy and listening skills; improved critical-thinking skills and decision making; strengthened communication and relationships; and enhanced leadership capabilities and capacity.
The average person will never attain this enlightenment, but there are ways to cultivate the benefits in our day to day lives, and what better time to try than now? First of all, start small. Find a quiet place to sit alone and do what you need to do to make yourself comfortable–basically, set the mood to relax mode.
A starting point could be identifying a situation or relationship in your life that might benefit from some self reflection, such as a meeting at work or an argument you had with someone. Oftentimes, we (including myself) do not want to ask ourselves these questions, because they force us to take a look at our behavior and we may not like what we see. However, it’s better than avoiding it as you’re more likely to make better decisions later. So take some cleansing breaths and ask . . . How are you helping others in their goals? How are you not helping, or even hindering someone’s goals or perspectives? How could you have been more effective? What are you avoiding? What did you learn? What are you still unclear about?
Try just ten minutes a day and see what happens and whatever you do, don’t beat yourself up about anything. Use the reflection as a way to expand your capacity for empathy and compassion–two things I feel are the basis for a good human.
A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
JUGGLER: Just another Monday morning in Brooklyn last year:
JEOPARDIZE: Like yesterday’s isolation, jeopardize is another current buzz word. Everyone is in jeopardy of contracting Covid-19, which means, we would then have the very likely potential of jeopardizing others if we get it. Every day, we need to think about the essential workers who are jeopardizing their lives and the lives of their loved ones when they go to work each day. One way to make their lives easier, is to think about what we’re doing when we go to the grocery store, or any other outing.
A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ISLANDERS: We enjoy watching hockey and of course, being from Colorado, we love the Avalanche. However, tickets were always pricey and driving over an hour to Denver was always the pits. Fortunately, the Colorado Eagles, an immensely talented minor league team played games only 20 minutes from us at the Budweiser Event Center. With affordable tickets and a short drive, getting our live hockey fix was easy. Still, there’s nothing like the rambunctious cacophony of an NHL game, particularly, an Av’s game. Living a mere 10 minute walk from the Barclays Center, attending a hockey game is no sweat. I have to say, we were a little underwhelmed at the March 4, 2020 game. Compared to an Av’s game, this felt like watching golf. It could be because the Islanders were having a rough night against the Montreal Canadiens, eventually losing 6-2.
But before the final buzzer, things got exciting, just not in a good way. Islanders defenseman, Johnny Boychuk took a skate to the face. I happened to catch it when it occurred, but because it happened so fast, all I knew was that something hit his face. His hands immediately went to his face and he fell to the ice, legs kicking; he was in agony. Then suddenly, he hopped up, hands still to his face, and bolted off the ice and into, presumably, the locker room. The stadium was even quieter, and no one really knew what happened; no replays on the jumbo screen–nothing. I got on Twitter to see the replays.
Ouch.
Source: AP
If you have the stomach for it, you can see a slo-mo version. When you think of hockey injuries, you envision missing teeth, not missing eyeballs. Needless to say, an already mellow atmosphere, got even quieter. I couldn’t imagine his teammates having to continue playing after that. Fortunately, the skate just missed Boychuk’s eyeball, but his eyelid required 90 stitches! Left with some minor scarring (nothing new to a hockey player), he’s feeling damn lucky, even joking that at first, his phone’s facial recognition didn’t acknowledge him. Glad for the happy ending, but I still cringe when I think about it.
ISOLATION: Obviously, this is the newest buzzword. It’s scary and beautiful at the same time. When we traveled New Zealand in 2018, we found ourselves blissfully isolated on some of the planet’s most stunning landscapes. I would have no problem being isolated there right now. In fact, we hope to someday end up as permanent kiwis, but like a lot of plans, those dreams are on hold.
Isolation can also be very, very bad. If you’re looking for a captivating read where isolation is only one of many antagonists, check out The Ledge, by my friend, Jim Davidson who wrote about his experience on Mount Rainier. Jim is a climber who has scaled Everest and miraculously survived the 2015 earthquake during his first Everest attempt. Not the first time he cheated death, as you will read in his book.
Being isolated in NYC is a strange thing. Nothing like Jim’s experience, but it’s like static; busy and buzzing, but nothing is happening. You feel a little buzzy yourself, but with nowhere to go. However, if you have a computer or phone and WiFi, there’s plenty of ways to not feel so alone. I attended a Zoom lecture/meditation session with Yogacharya Dharmananda, whom I met in 2015 and studied under for a few years. He said not to take “social distancing” literally; physically, yes, but to reach out socially as much as possible. If you’re feeling isolated, check out Meetups you’re interested in because so many are now offering Zoom get togethers. For writers, check out Northern Colorado Writers, a writing organization (open to anyone anywhere) that is offering tons of online support through Slack and Zoom, so you can commiserate stay connected with fellow scribes. (As former director of NCW, I can vouch for its awesomeness; no bias at all.) Reach out to friends and family. Chances are, they’re feeling just as isolated and will love to hear your voice and/or see your mug. (Face paint not required, but highly recommended.)
Might I also present a case in favor of isolation. We often discount the restorative benefits of alone time, and in doing so, mistakenly link solo time with loneliness. Our busy lives tend to keep us from the important and valuable act of self-reflection. A grownup timeout has shown to create greater empathy, improved critical-thinking skills, and better decision making. I’ll talk more about this in Monday’s post, but until then, consider putting yourself in the corner and thinking about what you’ve done . . . or want to do . . . or will do . . . or just have a heart-to-heart with yourself.
A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
HIP HOP DANCE CLASS: Last fall, I decided to try something new: hip hop dance classes at Dancewave, a dance studio a block from my apartment. I was nervous, but it was labeled as a beginner class, and I figured I had a decent level of rhythm and that I’d be well on my way to being a Fly Girl within the first few lessons. I could not have been more wrong. I was horrible. A humbling experience to say the least. And hard. Several of the dozen or so participants floundered like me, but I felt like the worst one; arms flailing and legs performing a hybrid of Riverdance and a Barre workout. At one point, I struggled to get out of a squat and by the time I did, I was eight moves behind. Hip hop moves fast. As a middle-aged, Scandinavian white woman, I should not have been surprised by my lack of rhythm–it showed. Regardless, I had some fun. Then the holidays came, then the virus, and so my Fly Girl dreams are going to have to wait. Check out @von_b, the class instructor, who bless his heart, deserves a medal for his patience alone. Even Elaine was better than me.
HEADSPACE.COM: I’ve had an on-again-off-again relationship with mediation. Click HERE if you’d like to read a magazine article I published regarding the benefits of meditation. If there’s any time to be meditating, it’s now. I know it’s difficult to do, but like anything, it takes time, effort, and patience in order to reap the rewards. In conjunction with Governor Cuomo, otherwise known as Saint Andrew, Headspace is offering a free, special collection of meditation sessions for New Yorkers. How cool is that? So light some incense, slow down, and take a break from the incessant news cycle. If you need some convincing, check out these studies on the benefits of meditation. Now go ohm.
A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
GOWANUS: Gowanus, once known as South Brooklyn, is the neighborhood where I live. It saw the first settlement of Dutch farmers, who staked their claim along the 1.8-mile-long Gowanus Creek. British ships navigated the creek during the American Revolutionary War, the manufacturing industry turned it into the Gowanus Canal in the mid-1800s, and allegedly, the Mafia used it as a dumping ground. Pollution has made it a superfund, and thus, the Gowanus Monster was born.
(“Aqua Incognito” by street artist, Raul Ayala, in 2014)
Tales of its toxic waters has made it into novels and movies, but it wasn’t until 2014 when author Dave Kelly published an issue of his comic series called, “It Came from the Gowanus Canal,” that the legend of a grotesque Loch Ness emerged from the murky, contaminated sludge. The comic series publisher teamed up with the Gowanus Souvenir Shop (a fantastic shop, by the way) to create a fake movie poster, which also lead to a number of items such as postcards, hats, t-shirts, prints, etc. My time here wouldn’t be complete without some souvenirs of my own.
THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW: Yes, I’m slow to the party. Everyone has already binge-watched this charming, highly addictive baking show on Netflix, that pins kind and lovely amateur bakers against each other. It’s refreshing to see a reality show where the contestants are actually nice to one another, whereas, in the U.S., abhorrent behavior is a staple of American reality television (a.k.a. “I’m not here to make friends” entertainment).
I don’t bake often, and aside from bread, we rarely consume home-baked goods such as cakes, cookies, pies, etc. Unless I’m baking for a crowd–which isn’t happening these days–a half-eaten lemon bundt cake will start to resemble the Gowanus Canal lurking under the foil.
But dang it, I now have a hankering to bake and eat it all. Suddenly, I’m perusing old cookbooks and spending way too much time on Pinterest building my baking boards. When I cook dinner, I find myself with an inkling of anxiety as an imaginary clock ticks down, signaling I have little time left to assemble our veggie bowls. I’m taking the show in doses, and because I’m only on the second season (or collections, as they call them), I should be able to sparse the show out in a nice, even layer.
A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
FLUSHING MEADOWS CORONA PARK, FREEDOM OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT & FOREST HILLS STADIUM: Please excuse the long title, but it’s necessary. Last June, we ventured to Queens to take in a concert at Forest Hills Stadium and made a day of it by visiting the nearby Flushing Meadows Corona Park where we found the Unisphere and the Freedom of the Human Spirit sculpture. (You’ll also find the Fantasy Forest Amusement Park here for some family fun.)
Flushing Meadows Corona Park is a beautiful, 1,255-acre park in Queens that played host to two World’s Fairs (1939 and 1964). It wasn’t always so beautiful, having once been the dumping ground for coal ash in the early twentieth century. In The Great Gadsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald described it as a “valley of ashes.”
” . . . a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.”
It wasn’t pretty. Then, in the mid-1930s, Robert Moses swept in and converted it into a park. The Unisphere, a remnant of the 1964-65 World’s Fair (and a CGI prop in Men in Black), is really magnificent. Built to represent the fair’s theme of “Peace Through Understanding,” and celebrated the dawn of space exploration, it’s now a Queens landmark.
Also created for the ’64 World’s Fair, the Freedom of the Human Spirit bronze sculpture by Marshall Fredericks, depicts a male and a female nude with wild swans soaring skyward.
“I realized that great multitudes of people, of all ages, and from all walks of life would see this sculpture…I tried to design the work so that it was as free of the earth, as free in space as possible…the thought that we can free ourselves from earth, from the material forces which try to restrain and hamper us, is a happy, encouraging and inspiring one, and I sincerely hope that my work will convey this message.”
Marshall Fredericks
A short walk from the park is Forest Hills Stadium, built in 1923, and boasts a name-dropping history of performers: the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, Diana Ross, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Talking Heads, and The Who — just to name a few. It also hosted the U.S. Open for decades, but after the tennis tournament moved in ’78, the stadium fell into disrepair and sat empty and ugly until 2012 when it was revitalized. Since 2013, it’s once again a thriving concert venue. For now, it’s quiet again.
FACETIME: There’s so many f-words I could have gone with; one in particular whose root has spawned an impressive growth of f-blooms, but I think it just goes without saying. FaceTime with friends and family, however, has become a regular thing for us. I decided to liven up the visuals:
Yes, I’m that big of a dork. But this dork has cheered some folks up, so I’ll risk dorking up my reputation. I think we should make #FaceTimeFacePaint a thing, don’t you?
A to Z Challenge: My theme this year is NYC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
EAST ESTUARY (RIVER): That’s right; the East River is actually an estuary (I couldn’t resist the triple E). The island of Manhattan lies between the Hudson River (also an estuary) on the west side, and the East River on the east side. What you see above is the southern tip of Manhattan and the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge, taken from the Brooklyn Bridge Park, just south of DUMBO–and only a 30-40 minute walk from our apartment.
While it’s cleaner than it has been in decades, the river’s pollution level deems it safe only for secondary contact such as boating. From sewage to bodies to diamonds, the East River contains it all, including a surprisingly diverse marine life (much of which comes with warnings to not consume–no surprise). Despite it’s sordid waters, many swimmers cough up (no pun intended) $2000-$3000 to take part in the 20 Bridges Swim each year. Nope.
The river has had its share of disasters including the 1904 sinking of a steamship that claimed over 1,000 lives, making it the deadliest NYC catastrophe until 9/11.
I hate to just rag on the East River, so here’s a fun story from last September where a paddle boarder came across a tomato plant growing out of a wooden pillar in the river.
Photo: Matthew Frey
EERINESS:Empty would also be appropriate. We rarely venture out unless we’re going to the grocery store, or maybe the occasional short walk to get the blood going.
The streets and sidewalks are quiet; an eeriness has settled over the city. Discarded rubber gloves have replaced coffee cup lids. Frankly, that’s about the only trash you see right now. We made a game out of it: if we spot two gloves of different colors mingling together, that’s a padiddle. A mask and a pair of gloves together is a triage. We haven’t spotted one of those yet. (It’s easy to run out of things to discuss on a long walk.)
Before leaving the apartment, I feel as though we’re preparing to walk out into Chernobyl. Once outside, it’s hard to not envision you’re in an episode of the The Walking Dead, feeling vulnerable, uncertain, and fearful.
But it’s necessary. And as eerie as it is, I’m glad to see very little people out and about. So let’s keep up the eeriness until we get through this.
