Never Before

I am twenty-five plus years into my time in New York, and I have never seen the Radio City Christmas show. There have been years when I've thought about it, and years when I thought right past it, and somehow, decades have gone by without my joining the crowds of holiday-clad people at one of the city's most famous theatres.

Among the wacky things about New York City is that, despite its myriad museums, sites, and cultural attractions, it is also just a place where people make their lives. On a day to day basis, life is about going to work and picking up children. Our weekend options may be different because we live in New York City, but weekends are still filled with negotiation over kids' activities and household chores, choices between all-out weekend fun and hours of accomplishing homework assignments.

I still haven't seen the Christmas show. But this weekend, I spent the better part of a day--more time, perhaps, than I have in twenty-five years put together--in Central Park, another NYC landmark. Aside from walkathons in my early working days, and a few field trips when my kids were deep into their "Central Park Study," at school, I have pretty much considered it "someone else's park," a big, beautiful thing for the bikers and the runners and the Upper West and Upper East Siders. But this time (full disclosure, thanks to a kid and to Pokemon Go), I spent hours walking, and taking in the scenery and architecture of the place and the city around it. What got me there was the kid and the game, but what "got me" was the juxtaposition of city and nature that I suddenly had the chance to enjoy. For those few hours, it was my park too.

Sometimes, "never before" doesn't necessarily have to mean "never." And sometimes, the door to what you've never done opens in the most unexpected ways--with the most unexpected results...