the christmas parade

So the next day at work I knew I needed to toughen up and get an acceptable story going, one that was appealing to the New York audience and I had the perfect idea. I ran it by my boss and co-worker and it was solemnly approved! There was a parade happening this week and I was going to attend it! And what a way to find out the general spirit of Christmas and what would entertain the attendees. Who knows, I could ask a few questions about the parade and the general spirit of excitement, the festivity was just before Christmas so naturally there would be anticipation and looking forward to the great morning! I walked up to a young lady and her two kids, as they sat along the edges of the parade. “Hi, im a journalist covering the story of the parade,” I said and she let me interview her. “Oh, yes,” she says. “I love all the beautiful costumes, santa and his reindeer, I mean, it just adds to the whole effect of the parade on Christmas.” And of all the things she said, what she pointed out to me was how all of this is just so important to the kids. "That’s why we're here," she said, "because it just adds to the celebration of Christmas for them, makes it real to them and is something to have to celebrate and look forward to Christmas morning." You see to her, it's not just the materialism itself that makes Christmas so magical and fun, but life would be dull," she said, "if there weren’t people and children to share it with, to see their excitement and fulfillment in experiencing it is so heart warming." I thought this was amazing. So it's not like its all about the fashion and the show here, but New York cares about how it benefits them, what touches their heart and this time, it was about all the fun for the kids, something near and dear to their hearts. At that moment, Santa came rolling by AND YELLED A MERRY CHRISTMAS to all the children at this end of the parade. You see, the parade ended, but not the anticipation, no, that lived on, until Christmas morning. When I told Julie about it at work, she was completely attentive, looking me in the eye with a smile on her face, saying, now you have hit the mark! And so the article was all about that, thanks to the lady at the parade. She opened my eyes and I could see life was all about that, materialism, yes, but a relationship with someone that was accentuated by seeing all their dreams come true. And how could that ever happen without showering kids with the material things that come out of the pockets of their moms and dads! And she was right, how could one enjoy the season without the joy seen on children’s faces when they come to the parade and do things like this!

New York materialism

As I reflected on what my coworker said, I knew that she was right and that I was dealing with a new audience, a different demographic of people who are more into something else. It wasn’t like Ontario, where materialistic things were not everything to them, but all materialism was everything in New York! I can't just hide myself from the reality that I had to elevate my game! I can't go home and cry or pout like I would and try to avoid my problems. “What was the solution then?” I would ask myself! I would have to adjust my writing style to theirs, and any writer knows how hard it is to scrap one idea for one that you don’t even have yet. But I knew I needed to think up something and get to know this part of the United States that I already love so much. So I decided first to call up my friend from work and ask if we could go for drinks at the restaurant nearby work. We met there Saturday night because I needed to sulk the night before and is it just me, or is anyone else’s experience to be so exhausted Friday night that you don’t feel like doing anything, going out anywhere. So we went to this local restaurant called TGIF, also known as Thank God It’s Friday’s. We basically just talked about my writing style and what New York is like. For real, I knew that I came to the right place because I’m a little materialistic myself, I love clothes, how artwork lightens up a room and tells a story about something going on in the family that buys it! I love that there are so many magazines and publications in New York. It was an artistic and materialistic world. One time, I told her, I went to this art show that was featuring artwork with someone who asked me out to go with him. I don’t even talk to him anymore, to be honest, but that experience opens my eyes now in retrospect, that New Yorkers love a GOOD TIME and a chance to be part of art, artwork, expressions of themselves as artists and the chance to purchase something that as a buyer is also an expression of themselves. So social gatherings are a community that bring together all the different arts and feelings or aspirations of artists and buyers, entertainers and door welcomers alike. It really did remind me of Gertrude Stein and Sylvia Beach in all of their social gatherings to celebrate books. They were confident women, determined to change writing and the world writing stage in their connection to the magnificent, intelligent brains they had. So I just needed to get into their heads, the people of New York, and going out to meet them was my only option. I needed to find out what New York wants. So we left that night at the bar to find another artist-related function and this time it was about an author featuring her work and being published locally.