Sunday, August 28, 2016

The Oldest Guy In the Gym


 Is me. Wondering why, I return always to the past. A teenager, I remember standing on the corner of Third Ave and Carroll Street watching the cars flash by heading for this mysterious and unknowable island, Manhattan...remember being on the corner of Fourth and Carroll in 1976 as the first runners in the NYC Marathon swept by (The other Italians in the neighborhood could care less)....remember staring at the towers of Midtown from my classroom window, teaching in Williamsburg...working in the Columbia J-School library the weekend class ended, watching the frisbees sail by the window....winning the fellowship that landed me in the U.K. and a job at Newsweek.. I remember so many nights on Madison Ave and Peachtree Street, the last guy in the skyscraper. Now it's the gym rebuilding after being sick. And it seems like my whole life has been about becoming...and never arriving.