Life is good

 

Saturday, September 28, 2013

 

I wandered little India in Jersey City last night after a long day at the office.

The perfect fall weather let many people wear short sleeved shirts even after sundown. But I carried my denim jacket with me anyway, and my usual notebooks, trying to make out my own handwriting from the handwritten pages I had scribbled down over the last few years, trying not to write as awful in my current journals – but to no avail.

This was the first Friday in a long time when I got to meet Sharon at the train station; so many of the familiar faces I’m used to seeing looked surprised at my arrival as if missing an old friend, from the coffee shop clerk making my usual coffee to the beat cop on the platform taking note of my note taking.

I love to write in that place because every face is an inspiration, and every person passing carries with them a story I need to capture, some in more detail, some in less, some are short stories whose entire lives rippled with their rolled up sleeves, while others are full novels whose mystery exists in their eyes, and I get but a glimpse of as they move on.

Some, I got to see more than once during my regular visits here. Most not.

This was one of the better days where I got to tease Governor Christie during an appearance down in Bayonne, a kind of give and take that left some people wondering about me.

“What are you trying to do?” one asked. “Start a riot.”

I suppose I have no real respect for power, but as Christie points out in another context, it is not the political party, it is the person. For me, it is not the title, but the person.

Powerful people who misuse their power piss me off, and make me dig my heals in.

But that wasn’t the case this time, and I got back to my computer feeling a bit more hopeful for the world.

This is part of the reason I felt better about coming to the train station and dinner, because in this time of change, it is nice to know that there is still hope beyond, not a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but a productive, positive outcome when all the pieces settle. Falling back into good routines seems to be among those pieces of positive that makes life seem good.