It's axiomatic that nobody's really from New York: this is the place we come to escape the places where people just don't get us, or are actively out to get us. But when we break free of the ties that bind, sometimes we also lose the cords that tether, those traditions that link us to other people, that remind us that our times are not the only times, our lives not the only lives. It's a matter of ballast--we've got to find traditions that fit who we're becoming as well as who we were, that let us both soar and glide.
Later today I'll celebrate Easter with a couple of lesbian pastors in a 150-year-old church in Greenpoint, and earlier this week I was privileged to attend my first Passover service, in which a large, unruly family alternated between Haggadahs to find the right balance between history and modernity. On the table was a Haggadah illuminated by the amazing Arthur Szyk, anti-Nazi cartoonist and Polish emigre, who celebrated his adopted country without ever forgetting his history.
So here's to tradition: Next year in Brooklyn!
photo credit: erica harris
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Oh yeah? I'm spending my Easter with a transgendered descendent of the Canarsie Indians and his Weckquaesgeek / Jewish boyfriend.
"Axiomatic" is so not the word you want. An axiom is something you assume is true to build the rest of your argument. If you must use a big technical word, "tautological" has the correct meaning. But "truism" is probably more appropriate.
Um, tautological SO doesn't have the correct meaning in the context of that sentence.
Grammar judges say the point goes to Shannon.
*I'm* really from New York. Does that make me a nobody?
Alan,
I'm really from NYC too. You're not nobody.
:)
How many people actually move here because elsewhere others are "actively out to get us"??
Such a weird statement. Shannon's either very paranoid or has some strange skeletons lurking in the hometown closet ...
@ridge. I was thinking not of my own family--we're strange, but not generally hostile--but of the folks who came here, or whose parents and grandparents came here, to escape things like pogroms, FGM, and the like.
@Rick Some say even the Canarsie Indians were really from Long Island--but point taken ;)
I'm from Manhattan too! It is funny how many of us purebreds there are on the UWS too. I'm ready to go some place else. There is so much construction around here its becoming another city entirely not the one of my youth. I almost miss the junkies of Needle Park and the Cherry Restaurant and all those little stores that went a long time ago.
anyone who wants to go someplace else...let's switch! come stay in denver, we'll stay in your place in nyc. :)
I like the Easter eggs.
ridge--
You'd be surprised to learn that gay folk are not openly celebrated and welcomed in all parts of the country...
Shannon, thank you for the links. I never heard of Szyk - what an excellent craftsman. And refreshingly pro-Israel, in our sad and confused times; yes I noticed the dates of his works.
Thanks again - and have a wonderful holiday.
Patrick, you'd be surprised to learn that not all of America outside of New York is made up of gay-bashing hicks.
I didn't say it was. And I'm not originally from New York.
Hey Shannon,
here is a link for you: picturebalata.net. It is the link for an exhibition of work from young photographers from Balata, the most densely-populated refugee camp in occupied Palestine: In these sad and confused times it is refreshingly pro-Palestine.
i don't live in new york anymore, but man, it's a great place to spend a holiday. while the traditions are old, the immigrant spirit really does seem to infuse them with all sorts of wonderful improvisations and adaptations that you don't quite see in other parts of the country, at least not to the same degree. it's a very uniquely new world experience.
Shannon,
Clearly there are people who are really from New York City - born and raised.
You want to live in a city of immigrants from all over the country and the world - a city with too many two year residents here for two years to build their resumes and get married - come to DC. Yes, there are a couple locals walking around and they are a rare and special breed (and no, in case you don't know this yet, growing up in Falls Church or Bethesda does NOT make you a local).
I think Shannon may be overgeneralizing her own personal situation.
I never got offended, as a Florida native, when people said "Nobody is *from* Miami!" I was, but it was indeed a rarity.
Yes, "nobody is from New York" it is a generalization, but largely true, no?
Are the majority of Manhattanites born-and-raised? I don't think so...
I think Shannon was generalizing, yes, but to a certain effect and certainly without any trace of malice or judgment...
alan and z,
i'm really from ny too! AND WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT NOBODY.
Born here on the island of Manhattan.
And seriously considering relocating to Vancouver.
@joe thanks for turning me on to picturebalata.net. What great photographs, and what a cool project. I'm passing the link along to my friends at hallfarm.org. One of their annual projects is to take kids from the Bronx to a reservation in South Dakota to share their photography skills with other kids there.
I was born in Manhattan and so were my mother and her parents, my siblings, cousins, second cousins, and school friends.
Manhattan wasn't always the exclusive province of the wealthy. For most of the twentieth century it had a healthy mixture of income levels, including a prosperous middle class.
Ridge, you might want to take a look at Roger Daniels' book "Coming to America." It has several easy to read charts showing numbers of emigrants to, not only the USofA, but specifically to NYC, along with concise reasons why they moved. No skeletons, no paranoia involved; rather, they came because someone really was out to "get" them. Ask the next Hmong family you meet about it.
I got the heck out of NJ to come to Manhattan more than 12 years ago (after leaving Argentina to come to the US when I was a baby) and am married to a man who was born and raised here. I think that cancels us out in this discussion. Everyone's experience is different. Why bash a writer who has spurred a good topic of discussion?