Journal Entry, 13 July 2020


Allentown. Buffalo. 13 July 2020. Sitting on the patio of a cafe sipping a beer. The virus has made it unsafe to sit inside. Legally we are able, but bars and restaurants are listed as unsafe. Sitting here contemplating what a different world we live in today and it occurred to me that I first visited this neighborhood in the summer of 1980. I was 18 years old at the time and it was just one year after my mom had passed away. I thought I was an adult but now see that I was just a child. A friend and I had smoked some weed and drove into the city from the suburbs. Though I didn't move back to the city for another 6 years—I grew up on the east side but spent my teen years in the suburbs—in many ways I've been here ever since. At first visit to this neighborhood I was and still am attracted to the bohemian atmosphere. So much has changed since then but at the same time so much is still the same. On that day 40 years ago I remember having just one single dollar in my wallet, that part hasn't changed much in my life, but since then I have lived so much. Done so much. There was (and hopefully still is) so much ahead of me that I couldn't have imagined it if I tried. What a cray wild and beautiful journey life is. Last week's heatwave is over and the evening air is now cool, but there will be more. If not with heat then other waves. Literally but also figuratively. Waves that I or we do not yet know exist. This is what I was thinking about as I sat in the cool of the evening some 40 years after arriving to this neighborhood and in the midst of a pandemic.  

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