Departures

My time in New York is coming to an end. By Sunday morning, I will be reunited with La Professoressa at our London flat, along with two old friends whom I am bringing from New York, Maureen and Mike, who have never visited London before. Almost every day here has been marked by meaning, sometimes almost too much, so that the heart and body staggered home to Dawn and Linda, my most gracious and generous guests. Yesterday, Paula and I visited our old friend, and friend for so-long of the Archives, Georgia Brooks in her apartment perched on the Union City side of the Hudson River. Woman of indomitable spirit, of courage and passion and insight, Georgia who dreams the best for all and never gives up on her passion for the theater even when her body pleads for rest.

Tonight I will see Deb for the last of our Tuesday night visits. New York was not the star of my visit this time, but these faces, aging and young bodies were, my friends struggling to make sense of this America, of this Obama and the hugeness of his task, my friends struggling to keep their community work going on shrinking incomes and government closures.

The litany of friendship, my New York world: Dawn, Linda, Deb, Paula, Leni, Cache, Saskia, Sherry, Jacquie, Andrea, Naomi, Eva, Liz, Bobbi, Joan; Katherine, Paloma and Elena; Teddy, Lucinda, Amy Beth, Mariah, Maxene, Alex, Lauren, Robert, Stephanie, Marcyne, Rowe, Marsha, Liza, Morgan, Jonathan, Amber, Ann, Blanch, Kate, Urvashi, Hannah, Dalia, Maureen, Mike, Daniel, Lisa and Lisa, Dee, Mark, my new friends at  GLASA, Queens College, and June, whose voice brought the all of her to me.

I want to give a special thank you to Tony Kushner for the brilliance of his new play still in previews: "An Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism and the Keys to Scripture." New York shone on that night down in the Public Theater where a great playwright took on our times, once again, and showed where our hearts, both in our own and the national body, where lost, but could be found again.

Now I will rest before another good-bye.