This week there has been a focus on community here in Astoria. We began to see the beginnings of our first conflict as each of us began to realize what living in intentional community means in practice. We’re striving for a balance between alone time and group time, NYC time and home time, and present time and other friends/boyfriend times. We’re not perfect at it yet, but I’m happy to report that thanks to open communication from each of us we’re moving towards a common understanding of how this community will function.We also had a lot of fun together Friday night checking out some of Manhattan’s gay bars!
In a larger sense, we remembered September 11th with the larger NYC community at a multicultural/multi-religious ceremony on the Hudson last night. Prayers and music were offered in many different languages, and everyone was offered an opportunity to decorate paper lanterns that were placed on the Hudson River with the skyline of lower Manhattan in the background. The lights shining up where the towers stood served as a powerful presence of what was lost.
At the moment I’m a little sad that I can’t watch the MTV VMA’s. Coming from me this would normally be a ridiculous statement, but I know that the girls at Marian Hall have been looking forward to watching the ceremony for a while, and I wished I could have seen it to be able to participate in their conversations tomorrow. Alas, I’m sure they will be more than happy to watch it as a re-run for the next 3 months with me.