I don’t know why New York City makes me so anxious. But it does. I have a generous friend who is letting me stay at her apartment so I don’t have to pay NY Hotel rates and its view is breathtaking. So rather than be anxious I decided to take some of the same medicine I proscribe every morning and begin the day in a quiet place, looking out over this massive metropolis and talk to God and my friends, you.
I am here to attend a Book Expo where just about every author, publisher, agent, bookseller, and printer attends. If you love books this is a Mecca where people walk through grabbing free copies, get author’s signatures, etc. I was overwhelmed the first day, but I have more days and signings, and I want to enjoy as well as do my signings, etc.
A breath of honeysuckle came into my life yesterday and I thought I’d use it as a meditation and pass it on as well. It seems a young man was giving the eulogy at his father’s funeral. The father had been Dean Of Admissions at some of the best Universities in the country and so this young man said this about his father. I bet you find a few nuggets as well.
- For him, college isn’t where someone lands, it was where someone takes off.
- One of his favorite quotes comes from Oscar Wilde: “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”
- He never saw his job as trying to measure what students had done — what they were — but rather trying to see what they might become.
- He said he built each year’s class to be filled with the kinds of people you go to college to meet. The ones you would learn from, that would change you.
- In the quiet moments of his final days, he was overwhelmed by a single emotion. He was simply, utterly, and deeply grateful.
- • Grateful for all the opportunities he had been given,
- • Grateful for all the kindness he had been shown,
- • Grateful for his family and his sons and grandchildren, and
- • Grateful for friends he had.
- Dad talked about how, when he was a student at Haverford College, a reformed quaker, William Bacon Evans, lived on campus and would greet the students whenever their paths crossed.
“Good morning, friend. How are thee?” he would ask.
“Fine, thank you,” we’d reply, “and you?”
“The better for having seen thee, thank thee” would always be his answer.
Not my usual mediation, but what do you expect? I’m in New York.
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