(obviously inspired by:
although actually it was the Bette Midler version I grew up listening to on car trips with the fam).
My dad has always resented the musical Pippin for the complex he said it instilled in my brother, the singer, and me. "Gotta find my corner of the sky" and do extraordinary things "when you're extraordinary" we've felt justified in asserting ever since those lyrics were ingrained in our heads when bro played the title role back in the year 2000.
If ever there were a year to adopt a mantra or life philosophy. It was the TURN OF THE CENTURY for goodness sake.
In any case... my dad should have begrudged Bette for bidding "goodbye to blueberry pie" years before on the casette tape we had of the TV movie star turn she'd had as Mama Rose. Because that may very well be where I first found that urge to burst out. I knew I'd never thrive and bloom living life in a living room and Mama Rose does it for her girls, but I was going to get myself to the big city come hell or high water for me.
And I did.
And my dad has also commented on how when he's seen me walk through the streets of Manhattan while visiting with my mom he's marveled at the way the energy I must exert pounding the pavement charges right back up into me with each clip or clop of my heels on the sidewalk, because I'm alive here (there), my heart beats to the pulse of NYC.
What's been interesting for me to notice in the past month since I've moved west (of the Hudson) is to analyze the bulk of the people who have also come guns blazing to be in the Big Apple. Most (some) people HAD to leave where their from, were the ONLY ones to get out, and would never go back as often as I do/have. They came to connect to the NYC life line and cut ties with their former lives. They're baffled by the way my life resembles 27 Dresses because that's the kind of story that requires you to have stayed connected to where you came from and who you were before you got to start anew in the concrete jungle where dreams are made.
But some people ain't me. And far as I go west, I'll likely always call West Newton home.
