Back in the USA during the first two weeks of September. My
traveling plans this time around included visits with friends I haven’t seen in
years. My first visit was with an old college friend, Cindy, whom I met many
years ago in the modern dance class we took together. We became friends and
ended up choreographing several dances for the end-of-year recitals that were
open to the public. She and her husband have visited us in Oslo, but that’s a
while ago now. We toured the JP Morgan library in Manhattan (she wanted to visit the library because she, like many tourists there the day we visited, had read the
two recent books about Morgan's personal librarian, a woman named Belle da Costa Greene, who happened to be a black woman). After we visited the library, we walked to the High Line so that she
could experience it, and then we went to see The Vessel, which is a unique and
beautiful artistic structure located on the west side of Manhattan. We walked at least five miles that day in 93 degree F heat. It was good to get back to our hotel (the lovely Warwick Hotel) to relax and cool off.
After I said goodbye to Cindy at Penn Station in Manhattan, I took an Amtrak train to Boston to visit my theology professor from Fordham University who just happens
to be a (semi-retired from teaching but not from writing) Jesuit priest. He is
in his early eighties, is living in the Boston suburbs at a retirement home,
and is as intellectually active as ever. I stayed in a very pleasant guest room
at the center (they have accommodations for guests), attended a 6:30 am mass in
the center’s chapel together with many elderly priests (a very touching
experience), and otherwise enjoyed some really rewarding conversations with my
former teacher. I had so many questions for him, and surprisingly, he had some
for me as well. I realized that there is more that unites us in this life than
divides us. He chose a different path (no marriage and family) but an
interesting one. As I get older, I am more curious about my faith, not less,
and he answered some of my questions. It was good to see him after all these
years. We have kept in touch by letters and emails for many years, but hadn’t
seen each other until now, and I don’t know if I will see him again.
From Boston, I traveled onward by bus to Albany NY where my
friend Maria lives. Jean drove up from Westchester, and we spent the weekend
together, hanging out, talking, and eating well. We managed a trip to Herkimer
to take a boat trip on the Erie Canal, something that I’ve always wanted to do,
especially after I watched the NY Adventure Club’s virtual lecture about the
history of the canal. I’ve written about that in previous posts (
Jean and I returned to her house for a couple of days, which
I always look forward to; her house is like my second home and she is like
family to me. I met her two new grandchildren for the second time, which was
very nice. She and I met up with a biology teacher from our high school who is
in her early eighties and who has dyed her short close-cropped hair a muted
shade of purple. I don’t remember her as being a funny woman, but she is. We
met for lunch in NJ together with another friend, Stef, who also attended the
same high school (Our Lady of Victory in Dobbs Ferry NY).
From there I drove onward to the Milford PA area to get
together with my sister Renata and her husband Tim. We enjoyed some nice days
together just relaxing, and then I drove back to the Westchester area to visit
my friend Gisele for an afternoon. She is unfortunately quite ill and tires easily. But it was wonderful to see her.
This has been my traveling year; my hoped-for goal was to visit with
friends whom I’ve not seen in a while, and I've managed to do that. In
December, I will meet up with another friend, Haika, whom I haven’t seen since 2010. We're planning to meet in Dresden Germany in order to visit the Striezelmarkt
Christmas market there. It’s apparently the oldest one in Europe (
I'm enjoying my travels here and there and want to do more traveling in Europe as well as the USA. I’m always amazed by the vastness of the USA and how things really do function fairly well in spite of that vastness. Some people tell me they are now content to stay in one place and not travel. Perhaps I will say that in ten years or so, but not now.
