New York by Train, Feb 2011

New York by Train, Feb 2011

 

A couple of Saturday nights ago, daughter Ashley's family had tickets for the ice show at MSG. Son-in-law Tom was scheduled to drive in with daughter Emma after her swim meet. I was going to ride the train with Ash and the two boys, Ed and John – as their guide. Since I love riding trains, being with the family, there was no hardship. After shepherding Ash and the boys to MSG I was going to meet Mikki in NYC for dinner.

Tom ended up making the 5:38 train. Mickey canceled because of the cold. My friend, Manzi, called in the afternoon looking for something to do and said he wanted to come along. 

At 6 PM we are all on the train heading to NYC. Ash and Emma are sitting in front of Manzi and me. The two boys are with Tom-dad across the aisle. Mid trip Emma turns and looks over the back of the seat. “Want to know what we do at swimming practice?” she says.

 “Yes,” I say.

“It’s called pyramid. It’s … Ok, first, it’s 25-butterfly, then 50-butterfly-kick, then 75-butterfly-drill, then 100-butterfly-pyramid,  a 75-butterfly-drill, a 50-butterfly-kick, then 25-butterfly. Emma’s description, with the exact progression of 25-50-75-100-75-50-25 continues for all other events: freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke. It takes a while. At the end I say to Emma, “Could you repeat that?” and all laugh, including Emma.

Manzi, also trying to pretend to be funny, says that someone should call Caroline and tell her that he is on the train to NYC ... and he's very relaxed about it. Ash dials Brett in California - relays the message.

Emma turns again and asks, “Why is Manzi here?” I explain that he has a pretend "girlfriend" in California - Carolyn - and he wants her to know that he is capable of riding the train and that he is very nonchalant about it. Everyone laughs at this – Emma only half. (FYI - re. Carolyn - Manzi has never seen her and never will, but CA daughter Brett thinks they'd be a great pair so the joke escalated after Carolyn sent Manzi a Christmas card)

Emma’s question was offered with such childlike sincerity that I feel bad that my response was not returned with the same sincere wholeheartedness. My thought falls away and the trip continues.  

The next day, my thought returns. I tell Emma that I’m sorry that I didn’t answer her truthfully when she described her swim practice and asked about Manzi. She accepts my apology but seems uncertain why I have said it. My reason, of course, was her sweet earnestness which, upon reflection, reminded me of why and how life is beautiful and true, or at least how it might be if we (me) could just “become like little children,” and actually see the other instead of always only one's self,

 

And so, however small it may seem, I am, once again, sorry that I missed the opportunity to respond truthfully to her instead of making a joke to please myself.

So, I tried to make up for it. I hope she remembers this and, more importantly, that I do as well.