Going to Boston

When I was a kid in my last year of high school my sister got a job downtown and my school was also downtown. It was tough to park downtown for her for work but at school we had a parking lot so we started commuting together. The way the highways are we'd get about 2/3 of the way to school and work and there was a split in the highway that said Albany one way and Boston the other. Particularly on nice days we'd get to that point in the split and look at each other and say, "We should go to Boston. Just play hooky and mess around." We'd both smile and laugh and then continue on our way to school and work because we were good kids and we did what you were supposed to do. We never played hooky.


That became sort of one my regrets in life. Not... you know... I'm clearly doing pretty well if that's my regret, but in the sense that we should have. Katie and I should have taken a day off once, spontaneously, and had fun together. And so in my head "going to Boston" became this euphemism for seizing the day and living in the moment and taking advantage of things that life offers you that maybe if you're just being a good kid you wouldn't do but that there's no harm to and really you should do.

And now I'm going to Boston. School starts today. But I was at Mom's house over the weekend so this morning I got to that spot where it says Albany this way and Boston that way and I picked Boston. To go to school, and be a good kid. But when you're 17 going to school is being a good kid. When you're 42 going to school is not being a good kid anymore. When you're 42 going to school is seizing the day and taking advantage. I didn't pick a school in Boston on purpose, but I love the idea that I'm going to Boston.

My goodness school snuck on me though. May and June and even July when I was still in Maryland and I was packing the house and I was doing the last of the medical work in my mind and my heart I was already gone. I was already in Boston. I was thinking about school. I was signing up for classes. I was ready. I was "OMG it can start now please, I am ready." And then I moved so that I was officially in Boston, or at least officially not in College Park, but ended up with work. And not just work, but the kind of work that I like. The kind of work that frankly if I'd had enough of it I probably wouldn't have been going back to school. And so pretty much since I've moved my mind hasn't been in Boston at all apart from the 4 days of fighting to get my car sorted out. And so it snuck up on me. Suddenly over the weekend I was talking about school and "...so next Monday we have orientation..." oh no wait, that's not next... that's tomorrow. Next Monday is tomorrow. Next Monday is now today. And yes I am still ready for it but it was not... Not that I wasn't ready for it a week ago but I just wasn't thinking about it a week ago because I had other things to think about. And so I went from "OMG start now, start now." to "OMG it starts now!"

Linda and I were talking about it at lunch last Friday: things that require a certain amount of Zen. She brought it up; she noticed it because she's taking yoga now. In yoga they're trying to teach people how to be Zen and live in the moment and ... I don't know, Zen's probably not the right word. Whatever. She doesn't have any problem with that because she does that for her hobbies. Because when you're birding you're sitting very quietly and you're focused and you're in the moment because if you're anywhere else you'll miss the birds. And when you DP you have to have a lot of focus and you have to be very quiet and you have to live in the moment. You have to be there or else you'll miss what's happening. And so she has those two hobbies and so yoga is yeah, more of that. I hadn't really thought about it. I hadn't thought about DP'ing being that way, but once she said it I thought, oh you're kind of right. Because I notice that teaching is that way. That no matter what else is going on in life when you shut the door to the classroom and start class there is only class. There can be only class. Because otherwise ... well not so much I'll miss it, but my students will miss it if I'm not present and just in the moment. Once she said that I thought, oh yeah, DP'ing is like that too.

So, carpe diem. Go to Boston.

* I actually dictated this to Voice Memo while I was driving from Albany to Boston and then typed it up after I arrived. Hence the very stream of consciousness nature of it.