A wise man (on the TV show The Wire) once said, "Life is the stuff that happens when you're waiting for moments that never come." I don't know about the negativeness of the "moments that never come" part, but the emphasis on the in-between, of mundane moments in life that define who oe is, is I think a big part of life.
Whenever people think about the meaning of life, it's usually some grand deed, like winning a championship in a sport, or writing the next great American novel, or becoming a parent and a grandparent, getting married, all very important events and worthy of being cherished, but those moments come far and in between. It's what we do in between those momentous days and moments (Matt Damon also said "Life is a series of moments" in Dogma, which also seems true) that sometimes define who we are. We spend most of our time a.) sleeping, in which nothing memorable happens especially dreams, which are hard to remember by design, and b.) working/studying/ doing mundane activities. We kind of just gloss over those everyday activities, but those are d
New York City, where I am for work for a short time, is great because there's so many places to be doing something in between things. Just walking back from work back home can be 10 different things that happen. See new tulips sprouting because it's spring, walk by 10 different Chinese restaurants that seem promising with interesting pictures, 2 guys dining outside in the patio of restaurants with 2 big dishes of oysters (Man I was so jealous of those guys, those oysters looked fresh caught!) people eating ice cream. I guess that's why people have mixed feelings about New York City (as I have) and a lot of people either love it or hate it. You can have really miserable days and deplore the city for being dirty and smelly, but on awesome days like today (probably one of the best days of the year) the city smells like spring, it feels like spring, it definitely looks like spring with all of the colors from the sky to the sun to the cherry blossoms to the different buildings to the fresh grass and trees and people can be outside to enjoy it all instead of stuck at work or down in the dirty subways to avoid rain.
I discovered today that Juilliard School of Music (I also discovered Juilliard was spelled that way, which I did not know previously) is located in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in a beautiful area of the city known as Lincoln Square also home to the Metropolitan Opera House and Fordham University. There's a town square area (probably why they call it Lincoln Square) where there's a huge fountain with great architecture all around that lets people hustle and bustle around going in each direction, except for some people who hang out by the fountain just enjoying themselves. That's one thing that L.A. kind of misses, is a square that's a little better than Pershing Square. The whole Lincoln Square area just makes one appreciate life in general, being able to walk through such nice areas with such great aesthetics. Some of the best times MJ and I have are not actually getting to the concert and the event, or finally reaching the restaurant, it is literally the journey, not the destination, of holding hands (sometimes, when she's not mad at me) and walking through nice areas that is the most enjoyable. Basically, we like walking.
Living life in the gap of big events also is what we're doing with Game of Thrones, possibly one of the last of its kind, a weekly show that people see one episode per week and talk about the episode in anticipation of the next week's episode. Now with Netflix, binge watching, and streaming services almost all TV shows can just be watched all at the same time, there's no anticipation and waiting for the next episode. (Oh, actually, also The Amazing Race is still once per week. May that never change!) But what I think people will miss about weekly shows is exactly the waiting around and anticipating, texting friends about what might happen, setting up watch shows, listening to recaps about the episodes (I may be listening to GoT recaps while walking around New York City, which also makes both experiences so much better, like eating banana with peanut butter). Especially this week where the whole GoT universe (and even the whole universe itself) knows that there's a battle coming on GoT, which is pregnant with possibilities, one of the best things a drama can provide viewers. As one of my fantasy baseball friends constantly refrains, "What a time to be alive!"
Lesson in short: Stop to smell the roses (or tulips)!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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