Embraced
Thursday, January 17, 2008
I've been battling a migraine for a week or so now, and yesterday it erupted, full bloom. Which is not, of course, blog worthy (or anything worthy), except for this: I was expected to give a talk last night, a reading from my book FLOW: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PHILADELPHIA'S SCHUYLKILL RIVER. All day long, I couldn't put two words together. My head felt oceanic, tidal, swirled.
By the time I arrived at the Acorn Club I was literally seeing double, and there was a reception to be attended to, the talk, a dinner. I was listing, literally, and decidedly underdressed in a room wall-to-wall with elegant people.
No, not just elegant people: Philadelphians. Husbands, wives, friends who love my city the way I love my city, who are rich with stories, who are decent, well-read, kind. What can you say about a city that is on the verge of a renaissance, the way my city is, that has a mayor who seems poised to transform us, that is populated by the sort of good souls who accept you for the way you have arrived (ugg boots, wind-blown hair, a scarf bought from a street vendor in Venice), who offer to drive you home, who open and close the door behind you? What can you say about an evening during which you were rescued, again and again?
Some of you read this blog from places all around the world. Come to Philadelphia some time, I say. Come and meet my city.
