Oh, the things we do…
THINK. Oh, the things we do triggered by nostalgia...
It's Good Friday. 7pm. Beautiful day in New York City. I am right on front of Madison Square Garden, refreshing an app to hunt for discounted, last-minute tickets to the Knicks game. They would be facing Chicago Bulls, once an arch-rival. My mind goes back to 1990's. Sitting at the edge of my seat in the middle of the night, watching Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen battling Patrick Ewing and John Starks on the basketball court.
Few minutes later, I click a button. A series of logins, app installations, copying and pasting, and the ticket is on my phone. I am in.
Well, that was probably the most un-thrilling game I have seen in a long time. An early lead by the Knicks that went to 20 points and only increased throughout the game took away any notion of competitive tension.
No regrets though. I had plenty of time for other observations.
This was the second/third team's time to shine. Normally benched or used selectively in the high rivalry games, the players had much more space to showcase their skill and determination. And so they did. Sometimes one needs to be ready to step on the court and take the lead much beyond what they were used to. Played well, it can be life, career or future changing. If you haven't had your chance like that yet, watch out as it would definitely come. If you did, I am certain there was an upside - at least a good learning, if not more.
People are so distracted lately. One needs to amplify stimuli to grab attention and lock vision on the actual sporting event. Mobile phones, selfies and live streams; pilgrimage to get nachos, sodas or merch; commercial breaks filled with t-shirt gun and audience quiz... I know it sounds like 'it used to be so much better in the past' but are we not setting ourselves for lower quality of experience by allowing to be that distracted and inattentive?
Funnily enough, on the day we came back to Ireland, and my sleep pattern was disrupted by jetlag, I got to watch the Knicks live game vs. Boston Celtics and that was the sport spectacle one could dream of. Competitive until last minute, passionate, precise. And no hot dog trays in sight!
FEEL. Oh, the ways our minds go using confirmation or similarity bias...
One of the things I enjoyed the most during our NYC holiday were theatre plays. While my wife and daughter enjoyed some musicals, I chose two events starred by a group of actors that I truly admired in movies or TV shows. It was a rare treat to experience the stage presence and talent of Don Cheadle, Ayo Edebiri, Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. The first has had multiple memorable performances, from Oscar-nominated 'Hotel Rwanda', through 'Ocean Eleven' series to numerous Marvel movies as Colonel James Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine. The other three starred in four seasons of award-winning series 'The Bear' (the emotional intensity of which I covered in one of previous journals).
Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach played in 'Dog Day Afternoon', a remake of a 1975 movie by Sidney Lumet, a story of Brooklyn bank robbery gone south. The audience is captured in a similar dynamic as hostages: witnessing the internal struggles of the robbers, balancing between condemnation and sympathy, awaiting a peaceful resolution. The further the story goes, however, the more we are certain it cannot end well. Life just got too complicated.
Cheadle and Edebiri perform in 'The Proof', a Pulitzer-winning drama about father and daughter, both genius mathematicians, both struggling with mental health. The narrative starts upon the death of the father but interweaves retrospections and memories with the present storyline to paint a picture of a difficult love and care. The father, loosely inspired by John Nash, a Nobel Prize winning mathematician and economist (also portrayed in 'A Beautiful Mind'), has lost his creative power and slips down into insanity. The daughter, Catherine, sacrifices her academic career to stay at home and care for him. Understandably, the arrangement takes a heavy toll on both.
Catherine, being brilliant as she was, writes a proof, advancing her father's work way beyond anyone's expectations. Will the authorship be considered genuine? Will she avoid the mental troubles her father faced? Will she find love?
In general, parents yearn for their children to simply have better lives. Outperform their achievements, collect more enriching experiences, avoid as much stress and trauma as possible, be healthier and happier. It is founded on selflessness, bound to roles of protectors and teachers. Most of times easy and straightforward, on occasion it requires making some difficult choices. There is a balance parents need to keep nurturing their own selves, while blowing in their children's wings the hardest they can.
This is love, in its purest form.
DO. Oh, the things we do to collect experiences...
In some many ways, this family trip will be hard to beat. A near-perfect mix of everything we wanted to enjoy, carefully planned, but with some space for spontaneity. Photos on our phones, and snapshots in our minds. A journey into an unfamiliar place where we quickly found our space. Immersion in vibrant city life.
Back into my Dublin rhythm, I feel more energy. Same as one of our dogs, that we suspect is solar-powered (just loves to lie down in direct sunlight), I am responding well to clearer skies and higher temperatures. Conjuring good weather, I plan to spend more time outside.
Maybe I just grab a ball and go shoot some three-pointers with my son? He grew 4 inches since January we think so it could be time to be passing another legacy?
Otherwise, we will just create some common memories.
