Interesting Generational Karma

OK, so like my grandmother Jani, as anyone who has been religiously reading this blog may know, got a scholarship to Hunter College in the 1930s to study acting, which her parents would not allow her to take.  (And I must interject here that having read some of her letters in her later years in which she made stuff up about her life whole cloth, this story about the scholarship may not be true, but because she told me this in a private moment the summer she was dying of cancer and we were alone in the cottage in Maine -  I will go with it is true...or even if it isn't fact ... when she told it to me it was true)

Well today I was given the job of teaching acting (one class only, so still adjunct) at Hunter College.  I find this to be not only great news in general but kind of moving because of the personal history here.  I did tell the woman who runs the department about this when we spoke back in October.  This was the interview, as some readers of this blog may remember, in which I realized after the fact that I had a small bit of blue toothpaste on my forehead near my hairline.  So it is truly a miracle I was hired.

The even greater miracle is that the woman who runs the department, Barbara Bosch, was excited about the work I have created in NYC and in London in labs and saw, as I do, that this work can form the basis for acting classes.

So I'm quite excited about all this as it's a place I really want to teach, has an excellent program and is still part of CUNY, which means it is (relatively) affordable and therefore inclusive.  As much as I am getting out of teaching at BCC, I will be really happy to be teaching in my own specialist field again.  And in my beloved NYC and at a place with a distant family history (even if apocryphal...I'll never know...but as my theater company was called Apocryphal Theatre...do I need to know??)

I still feel a kind of dragging sadness about Vickie's death and an undertow of sadness in general.  However, my experience is mostly of happiness.  It is very hard to explain this so won't even try, but it's true.

Ugo continues to get happier and more affectionate.  My good friend Shawn, who I've known for 30 years from Wesleyan, was over here today and played with him.  We walked in drizzly rain (very London-like) to my favorite cafe and had lunch and talked for hours in the way you can only talk with someone you've known for 30 years and with whom you share some core values and experiences.

Taught early in the morning like usual so am crispy fried like usual while writing this...

But ending, as has become a recent habit, with a gratitude list: for the new job of course, great friends known for years and new friends, too, rooms to which I can go and heal for free with others who need to do the same, the ability to teach and give something back, my lovely cat, supportive parents and the guts I was graced with to make this leap to NYC...plus the basics: food, clothing, heat, shelter and good health (especially important when you don't have health insurance!)...and speaking of which: a city which does offer free and low cost health care if you hunt around for it...

Finally, a prayer for Vickie, that she is happy and peaceful wherever she is and in whatever form or formlessness she now inhabits.  And to her family and friends that everyone can console one another and give love and strength where needed and hold space for grieving.  I wish I could be there to join you at this time.