New York

Year of First Visit – 1998
Point of Entry – George Washington Memorial Bridge

Wow! Some people actually get to live here!



That's what I was surprised to hear coming out of my mouth one time when crossing the bridge from New Jersey to NYC. That's part of my feeling toward much of the entire state of New York.



New York City, especially Manhattan, is one of my favorite places on the planet. Memories of family vacations, business trips, and community development training all melt together into a wonderful collage of ----

--The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
--Touring city parks in preparation for redevelopment of our own Olmsted-designed green space.
--Subways the way they're meant to be.
--The best meal I've ever eaten (Thanksgiving 1998 at Carmines on Amsterdam).
--Seeing the Today Show live.
--The view of and from the Statue of Liberty both before and after 911.
--My toddler's temper tantrum atop the Empire State Building.
--Our friend's apartment which featured 2 full inches of kitchen counter top.
--My daughter hiding from the performers at Ellen's Stardust.

And the UN. And Roosevelt Island. And the Top of the Rock. And going backstage at NBC. And Aida on Broadway. And. And. And. And. And.



Yes, New York City has more memories per square inch than any place I've been or could even imagine. But New York certainly isn't limited to the city.



From Niagara Falls to the Hudson River Valley I have memories spread across the state.



Of those, my favorites are probably found in Hyde Park. The summer homes of the Vanderbilts and Roosevelts, along with the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, hold a special place in my heart. In fact, my long-term readers might recall that visiting Elenore Roosevelt's home there is what led to my starting to blog.



I still haven't made it to Cooperstown but it's on my "A" list of place to see. Of course, you don't have to ask me twice to go back to New York City, either.

So I hope and plan to return to New York again and again and again and create more memories with the people who actually get to live there.

Day 12 (September 2, 2009)

Let's go back to Eleanor Roosevelt for a few minutes. She had many quotable lines posted throughout the FDR Library and Museum.

One that resonated with me quite strongly with me went, "Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight."

It's easy to think of fear and heroism when there's an emergency or something high profile in which we are called to act. It's also not too hard to talk about less dramatic things like peer pressure in terms of fear.

However, sometimes heroism and courage are more rooted in private, internal moments. When you're depressed, you can be your own hero by overcoming the fear of getting out of bed and getting dressed. That may be the only accomplishment for the day but it makes you a hero even if it's "only" to yourself.

When you fight back against all the things inside you that are trying to keep you from fulfilling you life's purpose you are a courageous hero. It's so easy to just let things wear you down. After a while, a sense of defeat makes it easier to just let those things win.

Become a hero. Have the courage to do what it takes over and over again to win the internal battles. Not only will you become your own hero, you might just inspire others to do likewise. Perhaps you'll become their hero, too.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff

Day 1 (August 22, 2009)

Well, this is the start. I'm trying to move into new (for me) areas of technology. I confess to being a late adapter when it comes to technology. I've been in a bit of a time warp for about 10 years. The last couple of months I've decided to push my comfort zone out of the 1990s. I joined Facebook and am even thinking about getting a text plan on my cell phone. Don't laugh --- I still get TV over the air so this is a big leap for me.



So, why the blog? Well, earlier this week the family and I toured some historic sites in New York. Among them was Eleanor Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park. One thing I learned about her was that she published a daily newspaper article called "My Day" for many years. In essence, she was a blogger with a typewriter.



Now, I'm no Eleanor Roosevelt. But, I admired her discipline. I also have been wanting to do something different with my weekly email reports that have been going out since the early days of email and thought this might be a good venue. We'll see.



What will I blog about? Well, that's a hard question at this point. I'm going to give it a try and see where it goes.



Thanks for reading,



Jeff