Day: August 19, 2010

Above and Below

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This church is so cool on a hot summer day. I don’t know who is paying the air conditioning bill at this gothic masterpiece at high noon in the middle of August, but I’m glad it’s not me.

I found this dark, vaulted, holy space when I tapped into my app, Church Finder. I had just dropped off all of the paperwork for Chris’s visa to India. Yippee. But now I had to get back to my job uptown. I kind of wished I could revisit that Louise Nevelson chapel from yesterday. It was so lovely, bright and right near the subway. I started walking west.

The nearest church according to the app was St. Thomas Church at 53rd and Fifth. I felt a bit tired. I have been getting up early to blog, Twitter, Facebook, and work on my novel. I’ve been staying up late for the same reasons. But the cold blast of Christianity hit me. I liked the stillness, the darkness, the emptiness, after a bright, crowded afternoon.

The cool air had everyone in this church smiling as they walked in or out. Smiling in church made me think. Before I started grammar school at St. Joan of Arc Catholic School in Skokie, Ill., my family went to church there. I don’t remember ever praying, but I definitely remember being told to stop giggling. I also remember how proud I was when my father was the lay reader. And how surprised the priest was when I asked him in Second Grade, “Why can’t women be priests?” I am still asking that.

A few people were entering the church. I got the vibe that a 12 o’clock service would be starting soon. God knows I didn’t want to get stuck in a service. I knelt quickly in a small altar area.

The grating on the floor rumbled and the bells overhead rang. Wow. I felt the earth move beneath me. And the bell chime over me. Very nice. Very unplanned.

The church itself is grand. But the impression of the air conditioning, the bells, the subway’s rumble; the things that you can feel always trump the things that you can see. Though the altar is a feast for the eyes with lots of life-size sculptures floating up the back wall — Hard to explain and it’s getting late again.

Tomorrow I will be back up in the Adirondacks, thanks to Amtrak, just for a few days, but there’s bound to be a church-a-day there too. Can’t wait to see.

Last week I walked

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When I was with all my siblings and their families for our family week in the Adirondacks, I walked miles every morning with my sister in laws, Heidi and Nicole.  Walking is better than running because you can really talk.

We talked about the contagion theory of exercise. I loved this article from the New York Times magazine a year ago…

Good behaviors — like quitting smoking or staying slender or being happy — pass from friend to friend almost as if they were contagious viruses. The Framingham participants, the data suggested, influenced one another’s health just by socializing. And the same was true of bad behaviors — clusters of friends appeared to “infect” each other with obesity, unhappiness and smoking. Staying healthy isn’t just a matter of your genes and your diet, it seems. Good health is also a product, in part, of your sheer proximity to other healthy people.

So, because I am altruistic (and not at all vain. No, not me), I am walking, running, swimming, doing Yoga and Pilates, for my friends, family, my wider circle. I am not working out for myself. I am doing it for all of you.

Okay, I feel good when I work out too. I’ll admit it — I do it for my own sanity. Last night for some reason, I was in a bit of a funk. I was missing my kids. I wanted to be where they were, but the city is a drag for kids in the summer. After work, I went to the JCC to swim. I told myself, You only have to do eight laps. I have no idea why I always tell myself,  Do eight laps. In any size pool, that’s my goal — eight. It’s manageable. But I did much more than eight. I walked in the pool too, punching the water in front of me, like a crazy aqua aerobics lady. I did 20 sit ups on the side of the pool.

I felt much better.

Exercise is better than anti-depressants. But it takes longer and you have to change clothes when you do it.