There's something I never could quite understand about airplanes. An enormous piece of machinery, flying thousands of miles up in the air. It just doesn't seem to make any sense to me. But then again, neither does the remake of "We Are the World" with Lil' Wayne signing Bob Dylan's verse...but I still dug it.
The other day I had a love connection on the subway. I was riding the local 6 train downtown from the upper east side. I had just shown the Goodfellas actor, Paul Sorvino, a few $3M properties uptown and was heading back to the office. This stranger was incredibly handsome and after exchanging a few smiles I was certain he was to someday be my husband. As I stood up to leave the train he handed me a page he tore out of the book he was reading, with his name and number hastily scribbled on the corner. I wish I could say the story ends here. Only after we met for coffee did I find out he was only 20 years old, a student at NYU, younger than my little brother. I swore off "love at first sight" immediately in that sobering moment.
At least once per week I see the +254 Kenya country code show up on my cell phone. When I pick it up it's one of my kids asking me to Please Miss Jennifa call for me back! I think of the time some my students walked me 45 minutes home after school, up a dirt road on one of the hottest days of the year. Now I've traded t-shirts for blazers and flip flops for boots, dirt roads for a concrete jungle, but it's still where dreams are made of. And if I close my eyes I can still see my kids there when I look down. It tends to keep me in perspective...I'd have to say.
