New York nostalgia

img_1763In the grand scheme of things, I am not that old (37). Still, I feel I have been spending much time lately pondering phases of life that are over and gone.

My trip to New York last week was steeped in such nostalgia. In my quest to get out of my house a bit more, I agreed to speak at the Behavioral Summit organized by Ideas 42, a non-profit that helps groups incorporate insights from behavioral science into policy and program design. I enjoyed hearing from Daniel Kahneman, Nate Silver, Dan Pink, Eldar Shafir, Angela Duckworth, and so forth. I was on a panel on scarcity. My three fellow panelists talked about their academic research on poverty’s effects on the brain and behavior. Then I got up to tell everyone in the room that they have more time than they think. I definitely felt like I was the curve ball thrown in, but people laughed, which was what I intended, and I had people come tell me later that they would take my advice to turn off the phone for 2 hours and stare at the stars if they wanted to feel like time was abundant.

Anyway, the conference was held at a center on Third Avenue between 45th and 46th. I lived for many years at 38th and First, so these were my old stomping grounds. On Friday morning I got up early and ran toward the East River. That was my old route, with a slight detour through the Tudor City area, then out to the East River at 34th Street, and past the heliport, the Water Club, down past the United Nations International School, and then into the park that stretches most of the way toward the Brooklyn Bridge. I saw the track where I did speed work while training for the Big Sur marathon in 2010. I saw the img_1765playgrounds where I’d take my two little boys. It seems like ages ago when I was first pushing the stroller around with my now 9-year-old, or the double with him on top and the now 7-year-old on the bottom.

I was running back toward my hotel as school was starting, so I saw a lot of families out walking toward drop-offs. It made me wonder what life would have been like if we had stayed there. I loved being able to walk out of my building and choose from dozens of restaurants within blocks. I loved the view of the skyscrapers and the sun glinting off the water. The people watching in New York is always fantastic. It is impossible to know the counterfactual of a life. I like many aspects of my existence in the suburbs. Outside the window of my spacious home office the leaves are turning crimson and gold. We spent much time in the backyard on Sunday, watching the children play and taking in our roses and Michaelmas daisies. If we’d stayed in Manhattan, we would have had to move from our already cramped apartment, but suffice to say that no matter where we moved, we would not be living on three-quarters of a woodsy acre. Back when we lived there, we would take weekend trips out of the city for hikes and the like, but we’d always be figuring out traffic back through the tunnels, parking somewhere by our building or returning our rental car, and then hauling our kids and their gear back from the parking garage. New York is fun when you are not encumbered by kids and their stuff. The thought of my toddler on a subway platform gets my heart pounding.

So I am trying to appreciate that I can have some of both worlds now. I like going to the city by myself, img_1769and walking around the streets where I used to live. Now that I no longer have a nursing baby, and I have more childcare than in the past, I can stay overnight sometimes and not be dashing to Penn Station. Still, when I saw the morning light on the water sparkling like diamonds, the nostalgia was quite intense. I love the blue flowers in our backyard now, but New York has flowers in those corner shops too. Blue flowers at all hours of the day. They speak of abundance, possibility, a time in my life when much was new. They are always something to behold.

7 thoughts on “New York nostalgia

  1. Beautiful post. It reminded me of the feeling I get wandering through cities I used to live in, and schools I used to attend. There’s something oddly magical about walking through places you used to know. Thanks for sharing!!

  2. We left ‘the city’ for the suburbs in 2008, mainly because we needed space & support for ‘the kid stuff.’ I’ve had a hard time second guessing our decisions. I appreciate suburbia a little more now, even if I still don’t love it, I try to. It’s nice to hear that others have the similar city vs suburb questions.

  3. Having grown up in NYC, I think I can say that it’s a wonderful city if you have unlimited amounts of money, and preferably also time, neither of which my family had. If you don’t, then it is way way less so. Chicago was where I spent my 20s, and I will always miss it. Sigh….

  4. I often have thoughts like, “If we hadn’t sold XYZ property when we did…” or “If we hadn’t left XYZ town…” I often daydream of moving back to Bellingham, WA, where we lived in the Eighties, but my husband doesn’t want to live somewhere we’ve already lived (I used to feel similarly, but don’t anymore). BTW, I ran Big Sur in 1988, its second year. My favorite marathon of three, and my PB (3.57).

  5. Really wonderful post. There is something very special yet bittersweet about being some place where you have history yet knowing you’re not quite a part of it anymore. I feel that way all the time at my university where I’m getting my PhD. Being a student just doesn’t quite feel the same when you’re not heading back to a dorm but your house in the suburbs.

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