May 12-13 Days 19 & 20 – Montclair to Greenwich Village, NY (train)

Living Intentionally

Pilgrim # 2 (Judy) here. I join Denis in Montclair where he picks me up at the Bay Street Station in Zandi’s car, which he vaguely remembers how to drive. At dinner we gab nonstop with the Nammacks about professional development, faculty evaluations at independent schools, and the Shipley years. They drive us to the 911 memorial in the park overlooking Manhattan where residents gathered eleven years ago to watch the unimaginable events unfold. As we read the names and ages of all those who died that day, I feel a surge of connection to a larger community of grievers. How do survivors create meaning out of loss? Memorials, for sure. Lives led with more purpose and intention. And pilgrimages. We are here but for a short time. Make it count, I say to myself.

Sunday we head to the Friends Meeting in Montclair where my parents were married 64 years ago. Several people speak, one the former advisor of the Montclair Kimberly student who died last week. I am aware that the ripples of one life spread farther than any of us imagine. I hear from meeting members who knew my grandparents and my mom; one hands me a check for the IOC Foundation. Circles within circles.

That afternoon we rendezvous with Marty Spanninger, a college friend, and feel quite hip sitting in a Greenwich Village bar full of 30-somethings sipping exotic cocktails. We talk about our grown children and their unfolding journeys into the world in a changing landscape. Marty tells us of an exciting TV pilot she has produced, “America by the Numbers,” with Maria Hinojosa which puts a human face on demographic changes in our culture and how that may impact the 2012 elections. After our Monday walk, she heads to a screening at the PBS annual meeting in Denver. Our shared stories are punctuated with laughter, and I feel 20 again.

The cosmopolitan conversation continues over dinner, now with Elias Mallon who is hosting us Sunday night at a house in the Village owned by The Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, Denis’s former religious order. We learn about Elias’s work with the UN and other agencies, including Quakers and Mennonites, to build bridges between Islamic and Christian communities. When I ask him what he is most proud of in his work, he references a sign he recently saw in a Halloween store: “If you don’t find what you want, lower your expectations.” But as I listen to the circles that Elias frequents – his audiences with powerful world leaders and policy makers – I am convinced that he is helping to keep US policy in the Middle East from the brink of renewed military conflict. I am awed by his intelligence and humility.

Themes of ecumenism and community connection continue Monday morning as we walk uptown with Amanda Forrester (Carrie’s dear friend who is working at the New York Times), John Siceloff (another high school and college friend) and Marty. John is linking film screenings to community activism aimed at shaking loose the political and economic disenfranchisement that plague most Americans. What a group of “let’s do the impossible” people to spend time with! I feel right at home. But I get ahead of myself. Denis will complete this day’s blog tonight as I head back to PA, my batteries fully recharged.