Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Newark, Boston, New York City

This is Charles Martin Cosgriff reporting from home base in Detroit, Michigan.

These past few days have floated by far too quickly. Yet some moments stand out strongly.

Newark, New Jersey is surprisingly cosmopolitan. I had reserved that positive judgment for Manhattan Island. I am impressed by my error. Still, my presuppositions were confirmed to a degree when we had a drink in an Irish pub Saturday evening. So much for presumption. If there's an Irish pub, it's civilized enough.

After visiting with my son and his fiancee, which was the highlight of my adventure and I mean that despite what thou detractors shalt assert, I most enjoyed seeing Fenway Park in Boston. Yet New York impressed me in ways beyond simple prose. Liberty Island, Ellis Island; the reflecting pools where WTC 1 and WTC 2 once stood. Marvelous. We are one nation. It was quiet as we watched the water stream within the fountain, despite the thousands walking and talking nearby. You only heard the pools. You only heard the voices. They spoke powerfully.

Yet Boston. It's New York's sister, if they would both agree to the relationship. She has faced her attackers too. I'm not sure that I've experienced anything close to singing Sweet Caroline so deeply as the Red Sox nation sings it. Sweet Caroline, silence, then 38 thousand responses asserting "dun dun duh". Being part of it has scored me forever.

I wish I had taken Pops to Fenway. I think even he would have said, with his fist, dun, dun, dahhh. He loved the spirit of the game that much.

But it is what it is. That's all for now. There's more to come. And that's your bad luck.

This is Charles Martin Cosgriff reporting from home base in Detroit, Michigan.

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