Sublimity

A list of some of the things I think are sublime.  I don’t include wife and son stuff because everything they do is most excellent.

1)      Eating two apples and a loaf of French bread in the Arenes de Lutece in Paris.  What was noteworthy was the fact I ordered it all by myself in French.  Without the nasty looks I usually got for mangling that language.

2)      Recently got an old MP3 player that my son bought at a yard sale for $5.  I realize I’m incredibly late to jump on to this technology.  But it’s cool, after shuffling, to hear Frank Sinatra, Hayden, Iggy Pop, the Beach Boys, Miles Davis and the Osmonds’ “One Bad Apple” back to back.

3)      Being able to see some of the greatest Shakespearean stage acting ever.  Glenda Jackson as Lady Macbeth (opposite Christoper Plummer and Len Cariou, NYC circa 1987(?) and Kenneth Branagh as Henry V in “84 in Stratford.  Goosebumps.

4)      Spending afternoons browsing in Foyles bookstore.

5)      Sleeping overnight at my grandparents when I was a kid.  My grandmother was a sweet woman and one of the best cooks ever.  My grandfather would be game for just about anything, including spending the afternoon playing the old Sports Illustrated baseball game.  The one with the spreadsheet teams and one black and two white die. 

6)      Reading comic books for the first time.  I believe they were both Marvel anthologies.  They included the Fantastic Four battling Namor for the first time and Spiderman traveling to Florida to fight the Lizard.  I’m still hooked.

7)      Listening to two albums by the Kinks, “Something Else” and “The Village Green Preservation Society” for the first time.

8)      Taking unplanned overnight road trips to the shore or Virginia Beach with my buddies.  Wish I still had that spontaneity.

9)      Visiting (and eventually living in) New York City.  This is a city that changed my life in incalculable ways.  Pulling into Penn Station I knew the city - and life - was rife with possibilities

10)   Sitting on the couch after a rough day, my cat will come behind me and start licking my hair.  I keep it short and I suppose it’s just licking the salt in my sweat.  There’s something oddly parental though in the way he does it.