Weekend in New York

NEW YORK CITY

The cosmic tumblers fell into place when I noticed The Rising Family™ would be touring around Manhattan while the Toronto Blue Jays' hosted its season opener series was against my love-to-hate NY Yankees. 

Few things rival the delight I feel when the MLB season opens. One of them is travel. And yet we have our own double-header of fun going into this last weekend in March. 

Munenori Kawasaki, expounding on baseball with his unique verbal style, back in 2015

On a random note, one of my favorite Blue Jays players, Munenori Kawasaki, will probably retire this week from professional baseball. He had so much enthusiasm for the game and exuded cheer—the best qualities that adults should display when playing what is, after all, a kids' game. Kawasaki is a true ambassador of the game!

After a work event in New York City ended, Naomi and the girls joined me for a few days of exploring the Big Apple. While this is very much a PG-rated tour, we are hitting the sights and enjoying another side of America.

Here's a taste of Day 1 of our tour.

Empire State building from the outside

The view toward downtown and the Freedom Tower on the right

SpongeBob on Broadway: will we or won't we partake?

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I have spent roughly half my life so far living outside Canada. It’s been a conscious choice. I relish exploring the world; going to new places and learning about the local society and culture. To stay out of trouble in unfamiliar territory my parents taught me to mind my manners.  And keep religion and politics out of polite conversation. So far that formula has worked well!

The Rising Family™ is blooming now in our new home in The Volunteer State. We like it. Yet there is an undeniable thread of heated political debate-cum-invective in these United States. 

It feeds the spectacle of what is happening on Pennsylvania Ave. and in other government institutions in Washington, D.C. Living in America is lifestyle-friendly, but culturally perplexing at times, even for Canucks. There are real differences between what I accepted as normal growing up and how things work here. So when in doubt, I leave it out. To evade social potholes and dark thoughts, I think of new places… 

Like ASGARDIA! The world's first organization of a human society in space. In fact, long before recent controversies I, media-chugger and word lover, grew so tired of the relentless vitriol and bad news I chose to become a citizen of Asgardia, population approximately 183,000 souls. It's my show of disdain for our earthly plight by casting my hopes aloft. 

I am a dual citizen. (In all transparency, I was accepted in Asgardia because the main requirements are a utopian streak with a dash o’ Arthur C. Clarke. I pay no taxes and receive no benefits. I can vote. Asgardia has a mission statement but it suffices to write that it stands for Reason and peace in space. In a word: hopeful. 

Asgardians in the Americas

I pondered these Big Thoughts About The World and the cosmos. Then I realized during 2017 I had traveled around the world for the first time. I went from Delhi to Tennessee and back last June.  Then, a few months later I hauled it from Delhi to Japan to Vancouver to Tennessee. It’s not particularly unique. People circumnavigate the globe without stopping in a single flight all the time now. But for me, a bit of a personal milestone. 

I am making an effort to be friendlier to people I meet but don't know very well. And being more assertive with assholes. If the world's attitude improves, I won't have to move to Asgardia in the future.

Aloha for now.