Columbus Day… exploring five points.
1.
It was like everything we knew
was mightily swept away…
For the rest of time..
it would be like no one
even knew we were ever here.
2. The quote is from Gangs of New York, which I just caught on cable because there was nothing else on at 2 am. The Five Points area where the final bloody showdown is now Columbus Park, which is bordered by the criminal justice system on the west, and Chinatown’s funeral headquarters to the east.
3. I went to the wake I mentioned last week for my law school friend’s mother, who had suffered an unexpected heart attack. Same funeral home, same room, same age as my dad. My friend was standing in the exact same spot I was standing on the receiving line. It was extremely freaky, but also comfortable, in the sense that I knew where everything was. I stayed from 5 pm until it ended at 7 pm. There was not much to do except to chat with other law school friends in the lobby or sit in the room and meditate, which I was more inclined to do. The Buddhist chanting Musak made me want to do something prayful, so I ended up trying to say a rosary, using my knuckles to keep track of progress. If nothing else, it made me feel like I was doing something useful. The law school gang had drinks next door at Yello Bar, a Chinese sports bar that serves Italian food. (The only other restaurant on the block, Asia Roma, is also a Chinese resturant serving Italian. They’re both good).
4. Morbid news fatigue has set in. As of a new one last week, about 10 coworkers have lost a parent or partner this year. Guatemala has 3,000 dead, Pakastan 30,000. This has even overtaken Katrina victims, Iraq casualities, and terrorist targets from the news.
5. For the one bright thing in this otherwise grey Addams Family week, 10/11 is P’s and my anniversary. We have a week of things planned, including the return to the scene of where we met, Essex; a off-Broadway show, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, and trying out the French Culinary Institute’s restaurant, L’Ecole. She’s really the love, faith, and hope that I need in my life, and I am so happy for it.