DUKES FANS:
“One
of the things that humans have is the wonderful opportunity to encounter
surprise. But surprise is not going to track you down or come up to your door, knock,
and ask to be let in. You have to be out there in the world among people and
places to meet it, and, most importantly, you have to be open to it happening.” Curtis Williams
“You want
to make God laugh? Tell God you have “plans.” Anonymous
Many
people who know me would probably tell you that I am not a strictly-scheduled
person or a person who necessarily thrives on routine. I like to hike and
birdwatch following whatever calls to me, walk around the downtowns of cities
just following whim and curiosity and what calls to me, and reading about,
searching out, and following up on things that just catch my fancy. (My wife
once commented that I had never met an historical marker I didn’t love.) I have always been a curious and
multi-active person, and I am ADD. So I can go off in several directions at
once instantly, no matter where I am and what I am doing. At the same time, though, when I do
have a routine in some area of my life, I can get pretty hyper-focused on it
and a bit miffed if it is disturbed. I am still an early riser after 40 years
of teaching, so my morning routine is to be up and out of the house by about
6AM, go up to Chestnut Hill, have some coffee, walk around a bit, and then do
something definite-meet some friends for coffee and/or breakfast, go shopping,
go to a museum, walk around a specific place, go on a little trip, etc. And
last Sunday was a day that I had known what my morning plan was, and I awoke
fully ready to embark upon it.
I
got my coffee in Chestnut Hill, met with some friends, went back for another
cup of coffee, and then went to catch a train. Most Sundays I like to go to
Quaker Meeting for Worship, and I normally go to the 10:30 Germantown Meeting
at Coulter and Greene Sts. This was the first Sunday of the month, however, and
there is a wonderful First Sunday brunch and blues jam at Jamey’s House of
Music in Lansdowne that I love attending. So on those Sundays I train it to 30th Street Station and catch the
Elwyn local, departing at Lansdowne station and walking up to Lansdowne Friends
Meeting. It is a ¼ mile from Jamey’s and starts at 10. I have been doing this
for some 7 months now, so I know the schedule of the trains and how long it
takes me to walk from the station to the meetinghouse. I’ve got it down; it is now part of my
routine.
Except
that for the past two weeks, SEPTA, on weekends and during off peak hours, has
been doing track repair on part of the Southwest section of tracks, and they
were running shuttle buses from 30th St to the 49th Street station and sending
the Elwyn local trains on from there. Not only that, but the schedules were now
different, and I would not get to Lansdowne before the start of Meeting. POOF!
Routine vanished! (And there may have been some quiet
chuckling going on overhead.)
As
I made my way to the shuttle bus I was miffed and trying to calm myself down. I
was upset, and I definitely did not like my routine being tossed away. But as
the shuttle bus finally left 30th
St and took its slow, winding route through parts of West Philly, something
strange began to happen. We went past the Graduate School of Education at the
University of Pennsylvania, and I remembered that I used to work there for 2 ½
years in the mid-1980’s. Suddenly I was remembering people with whom I used to
work, including 2 of whom I am still in touch with to this day. And the bus
went by that little campus walkway off 38th Street that led to the Biopond on
Penn’s campus where Penny and I would sometimes go bird watching. It also went
past Woodland Cemetery, a wonderfully large and immaculately landscaped space
where we would hike and regularly see red-headed woodpeckers, ruby crowned
kinglets, and cuckoos as well as some incredible tombstones, monuments, and
crypts. I used to live in several spots in West Philly, as did Penny and my
son, Evan, and the bus passed near those places as well. I used to play with a
lot of West Philly musicians who lived near Chester and Baltimore Avenues, and
we used to play picnics and gigs in Clark Park, which the bus also traveled
past. Somehow I was recalling a whole slew of people, events, scenes and places
I had not thought about in literally decades! By the time we got to the 49th Street Station I had
re-connected, at least mentally, to a lot of great times and experiences in my
earlier life. And I was-surprise!-happy about it.
But
the morning was not over, and there was more to come. I realized that Meeting
would be more than half over by the time I got there, and I do not like to come
that late to Meeting for Worship. It is silent worship, and I feel it would
make too much of an interruption should I come in more than 10 or 15 minutes late.
The Elwyn local continues on to Swarthmore, though, and I suddenly remembered
how much I loved that little community. So I thought I would go and re-acquaint
myself with some parts of that town.
There
is this wonderful coffeeshop called Hobbs right across from the train station,
and, I stopped in there. Blast from the past; I was able to get a bottle of
Stewart’s Cream Soda there-Stewarts! With my bottle, I started walking around
that side of Swarthmore, remembering times and people and events from years
ago. I had played coffeehouses there in the mid-1980’s. I had taught in a
summer Upward Bound program for high school students from Chester for three
years that took place at the college. I had gone out with a woman from
Swarthmore. I had used their simply beautiful library several times. I had
always liked the “old English Village” feel of the part of town across from the
train station and the college, with its winding streets and Victorian
architecture. Sunday was a sunny, beautiful and breezy day; the clouds overhead
were stunning and wispy-stretched out with long, shapely curves. So many people
of all ages were out and walking about those winding streets. I saw and spoke
to a number of families out walking with their kids, including one 2 or 3 year
old who was a master tantrum-tosser. He reminded me that when toddlers were
upset, their whole bodies are upset: it is a total body experience. I also saw
a number of older couples, including one that looked to be in their 80’s
holding hands and joking as they walked along. I chatted and exchanged
greetings with a number of folks of all different ages and nationalities, and
by the time I caught the train back to Lansdowne to go to Jamey’s, I was in a
far different frame of mind then I had been some two hours earlier. Surprise
had appeared, and it had taken me to places I could not have expected or
anticipated, and that I thoroughly enjoyed.
The
jam at Jamey’s was wonderful, as it usually is. The various musicians there
were both fun and having fun, including the regularly appearing Carol Moog Dave
Rieter, Tony TNT Jones, Jamey Riley, and Toni Washington. The brunch was
delicious. But the highlight of that day for me was the magic and power of
surprise. Once again it had played an incredibly quiet and powerful role in my
life. Had it not appeared as it did, and had I not been open to it, who knows
what mood I would have been in when I hit Jamey’s? But surprise carried me
through, even in spite of myself. And when that happens, I am in a much better
place. Thanks, Surprise; once again you have saved me from myself.
A
couple of websites:
No comments:
Post a Comment