Please, Thank You
In New York City, the world really is just outside your window. This was especially so last night.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade musters on 81st Street. All of the floats — Dora The Explorer, Garfield The Cat, Kermit The Frog, Chicken Little, Mr. Potato Head — begin their trip to 34th Street just across the street.
Ethan, Chris, Jen, Abbi and I joined the throngs of New Yorkers circling the Natural History Museum to see The Great Inflation (as they call it), where all of the floats — netted and tethered to the concrete — were growing by the moment. Their colors were super-saturated beneath the great glare of the kleig lights.
Ethan was wide-eyed and thrilled. Between explaining to him the the whole thing was just a means to sell more stuff, and being bumped around by pushy Upper West Side parents, it was exciting, and fatiguing. Like the city itself.
At La Guardia this morning, Ethan squeeled at every take off.
“Fly high up in the sky! High up in the sky!”
I came to (thank you, Xanax) just prior to landing in Indiapolis. Looking down, the terrain had changed from crowded, chaotic urban neighborhoods, to perfectly squared miles of farmland. The Indiapolis skyline — obout the equivilent of one square block of Midtown — glistened way off to the south.
As we taxied to the gate, I thought to myself, ‘This could be the least exciting town in America. This could be the longest five days of the whole year.’ At which time I resolved to find the world outside my window right here in the middle of nowhere. Surely there’s something cool to do in Indianapolis. I’ve got five days to find out.
* * *
Meanwhile, it’s Thanksgiving again. And man oh man, what a radically different Thanksgiving from a year ago. It’s the year that made “Heartland.” It’s all there on tape: the heartbreak, the heartache, and stone-cold depression, and all sorts of time alone just trying to set myself straight. And it’s the year that friends old and new, near and far, gave me the greatest strength, support and joy.
And for all of that, I’m thankful.
