Monthly Archives: October 2023

Grateful in Philly

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Coming down from the Phillies and Red October wasn’t easy this time around. My friend Patti said it’s because last season we didn’t expect them to make it to the World Series. This year, I was so confident in the team I came to love. I grew up in the neighborhood down the street from the big arenas. When the Flyers were an expansion team, my brother and I sat with friends of our family in a box between the teams, right on the ice! In the 1970’s I ran up and down cement steps at the Spectrum as an usherette in a silly, polyester, pink “hot pants” outfit. Thankfully, I could find no photos of it on the internet. For a brief time, I did the same at Vet Stadium, in a different but just as silly outfit. That job may be why I’ve got bad knees now, but that was also when I became a fan of Philly sports. I’ll admit that I haven’t always followed closely, but when the teams are winning I am all aboard. 

I had looked to the Phils as the one bright spot in a present with disheartening hardships and struggles with violence at home and abroad. While this season was a let-down, I am grateful for the ride. 

Thank you Phillies.

Gratitude is trendy. I usually prefer to buck the trends, but I am all in on this one. Last week I visited the rooftop bar of the Bok Building before it closed for the year (Bok Bar). My first and certainly not last time there since moving back to Philadelphia. What a beautiful view!

View of Philadelphia at night from the Bok Building

Thank you Philly skyline.

I took a walk today, heading North from my building, hoping to boost my mood. It worked. The weather was Fall-perfect after a record-breaking hot spell. Nearing the parkway, passing the wonderful Franklin Institute building, I reminded myself that I haven’t visited in a few years. (Gotta get back there! The Heart! The Planetarium! Thank you Ben Franklin!) I passed kids playing in a tiny playground just across from the former School District of Philadelphia building where I had a summer job as a high school student. I was really fortunate to have had opportunities like that as a kid. But, the spot where I had to stop and savor was Logan Square. Swann Fountain, in all its glory! The square actually has a somewhat gruesome history; written about at the Billy Penn WHYY website. Its beauty, however, cannot be denied.

Swann fountain Logan Square Philadelphia

Grateful in Philly.

N.B. When I provide links it is to share what I believe is good writing or other works of art worthy of the time it takes to read and view. It is also to give credit for the purposes of authorship and to support organizations and their causes, as well as small businesses, especially those that are women- and minority-owned.

Imagine a Good Day

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This week, as the news of the world continues to explode with more violent conflict and division, it is difficult to stave off feelings of despondency and gloom. I want to do something, but it’s difficult to know what “I” can do to counter the situation. 

Every morning after walking my dog, Pepper, I check email and read or listen to the news while she has her breakfast. This morning, my favorite blogger, Maria Popova, re-posted a piece from her archives about autumn, my favorite season. I share that here, because the post and its references to the writings of Collette, another personal favorite, has given me something to grasp onto.

The weather has seeded our earliest myths, inspired some of our greatest art, and even affects the way we think. In our divisive culture, where sharped-edged differences continue to fragment our unity, it is often the sole common ground for people bound by time and place — as we move through the seasons, we weather the whims of the weather together.

Marginalian

The weather, yes, most certainly. In the elevator in and out of my building, chatting about the weather is usually the go-to for passing the time between the ground and 3rd floor where I get off. And, autumn is my favorite season. The end of oppressive heat and the beginning of a rousing, inspirational chill, not to mention, a reason to wear comfy sweatshirts and sweaters.

But for me, in my everyday life, it is art and literature and music and, to some degree, team sports that help me stay hopeful. Yesterday was a good day. Perfect weather for being outdoors. Pepper and I had an event at UArts,  where she was the therapy dog for students at their first Wellness Wednesday of the semester. Bringing comfort to young prospective artists is one way that I can contribute. I don’t know who said it first, but I believe that Art is one of the few things left for me that is worth doing in some way, shape, or form. 

After leaving the student center, Pepper and I wandered around the city. I picked up some lunch and ate it at Seger Dog Park at 10th and Rodman Streets while Pepper sniffed around and played with the other dogs. We left there to walk west of Broad, then sat for a while at a fountain in the square where South Street intersects with Grays Ferry Avenue. It was late afternoon, so a few moms with small children, just out of pre-school, enjoyed frozen yogurt from Igloo. Pepper and a dog up for adoption, from the nearby Doggie Style and Saved Me Rescue, got free pumpkin yogurt pup cups. On the way home we stopped at Pure, a dog-friendly plant store, then at our favorite bar to watch the first few innings of the Phillies game. (They played a great, high-scoring game winning 10-2!)

Over the course of the day I encountered no negativity and had very pleasant interactions and conversations with people in Philadelphia, many of whom I’ve never met before. It gives me hope for humanity. And yet, I almost feel guilty when I have such a good day, while others are suffering.

I think of John Lennon, whose birthday was just a few days ago, October 9. I think of the song and the album Imagine from the early 1970’s to counter the suffering in late 2023. I try not to cry. On the John Lennon website, Anthony De Curtis, coincidentally local to Philadelphia, writes about the song.

… “Imagine,” too, is not merely a pastel vision of a utopian world. It is a challenge and a responsibility, a sentiment akin to Mahatma Gandhi’s statement that “We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.”

John Lennon. Gimme Some Truth.

I am a little person pushing 70 trying to maintain a smile while walking around the city with my little old dog Pepper, who gives joy to people wearing her Phillies shirt, receiving pets, and licking hands. I hope we are being the change.

N.B. When I provide links it is to share what I believe is good writing or other works of art worthy of the time it takes to read and view. It is also to give credit for the purposes of authorship and to support organizations and their causes, as well as small businesses, especially those that are women- and minority-owned.

Haves and Have-nots

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In 2007, the Pew Research Center published a report titled A Nation of “Haves” and “Have-Nots”? The sub-heading reads, “Far more Americans now see their country as sharply divided along economic lines.” In 2023, it appears that this perception hasn’t changed much, especially in the city of Philadelphia. There is so much I love about my city, a city rich in beauty and culture, that also takes pride in its grit and edginess. So when people who live here engage in vandalism and looting, I feel it personally.

After a peaceful protest regarding the dismissal of charges against a Philadelphia police officer’s killing of an individual at a car stop, a social media influencer incited a night of looting in center city Philadelphia and beyond. https://www.inquirer.com/ 

That same night, just before the looting, I was on my way to a theater performance when the busdriver announced that he had to detour because of a protest at City Hall. I made my way to the theater on time and saw a wonderful production. 

Later that night when the Uber driver dropped us off, two blocks away from where Tuesday night’s rampage took place, there was no evidence of it. Once home, I turned on the news and learned 1) the Phillies clinched a place in the playoffs (YAY!) and 2) stores on Walnut Street had been broken into and looters left a path of destruction and disarray. 

Walking my dog along Walnut Street on Wednesday morning, the sidewalk was cleaned up and activity was pretty much back to normal. However, the aftermath was on people’s minds. They peered into the entrance of the Apple Store, usually a wide open glass wall, now curtained off by two large swathes of black and white.  At the pet store on 17th, a young woman customer, who lives across from the Apple Store, said she heard a loud rumbling with yelling; she watched from her window as the looters barreled over Walnut from the Footlocker to the Apple Store. The store clerk said she’d checked the store camera and could see some of it. She talked about the spread of the looting up to Aramingo Avenue near where her godfather lives. When something extraordinary happens, it’s natural to reflect and to want to talk about it. Where was I? What was I doing when? 

Outside of the ransacked stores there were news reporters seeking person-on-the-street reactions. The Lululemon store was dark. Looking closer I saw that clothing was strewn all over the floor and two young black men were posted as sentries sat on the mounds of merchandise. These young men could be around the same age as the looters. I chatted for a bit with my friend’s daughter, a 6ABC news reporter who was stationed outside Lululemon. A passer-by wanted to talk to her but she deflected him deftly. She said this happens all the time. Everybody has an opinion, and I’m sure she knows how to choose whose opinions would be newsworthy.

But, for the most part, all was back to normal: people on their phones rushed to their destinations amidst dog walkers, joggers, gym rats, parents or nannies with strollers, Hare Krishna chanters danced at the northeast corner of Rittenhouse Square and a man with mismatched shoes and socks shouted obscenities at them from across the street. 

I am writing about it in an effort to process and understand why an explosion of destruction often follows the expression of feelings of injustice and loss. In the news and on social media, the looting got more coverage than the protest. Opinions vary widely. Why feel sorry for the Apple Store? But, what about the retail workers losing pay? What a blow to small businesses in the city still trying to recover from the pandemic. It’s not safe anywhere in the city! I’m moving to the suburbs! 

To my mind the most comprehensive well-considered opinion is Larry Platt’s piece in The Citizen. Platt takes a broader view and reminds us that incidents like this are part of a much larger problem.

But let’s widen our lens even further. There’s plenty of evidence . . . that civic disorder is viral in nature. Citizenship is, after all, a social compact. We live together voluntarily, and when messages get sent time and again that our once agreed-upon rules no longer apply, or that they only apply to some, we know what happens: The compact breaks. We get anarchy. We get nihilism. We get streets that feel unsafe, even if crime rates are coming down.

LARRY PLATT
SEP. 29, 2023

To that I will add my opinion. I think the culture of acquiring and accumulating “stuff” that stokes our feelings of status has much to do with it. People want stuff. They want clothing and shoes, computers and phones, jewelry, shiny showy stuff, the stuff that says high social status, smacks of power and respect. Whether it is earned or stolen doesn’t matter. It fills up the feelings of emptiness and staves off feelings of resentment. Maybe, for a little while. The harm is obvious, moreso for the businesses like Nat’s Beauty Supply whose owner saved for years to open and hopes to continue (link to the gofundme). It does nothing for the injustice and grief suffered by those who lose a child, a sibling or a friend to mayhem and gun violence.