I have this habit – I fall in love with people regularly. I find people fascinating. I meet new people who are so warm, friendly, beautiful, talented, funny and outstanding that I just want to know them and hang-out with them. I try to break bread with them, even cooking a meal for them. I am compelled to share information about events, opportunities, movies, books, and music with them. I wish I had enough money to have the head space and physical space to host a monthly salon attended by them..
At the risk of missing someone, here are some people I’ve fallen in love with over the past year or so:
June – how stunning ,fashionable, elegant though shy. She cooks, caters, designs and is truly dependable.
D.J. –warm. friendly and funny. He’s a culture aficionado.
Nash – a music lover extraordinary who travels regularly to see singers and musicians she favors. Met her at Scullers Jazz CLub, which she came to from North Carolina to see a favorite singer.
David – A colleague becomes a friend. He’s smart, well-traveled, savvy and beneath a slightly aloof demeanor beats a warm heart and a wicked humor.
Christina – My niece who is already getting her Master’s and traveling and pursuing her acting dreams while being practical about having another way to make her living.
Xavier – Beautiful voice, enthusiastic and a true gentleman who’s a recent Morehouse graduate. Makes time for culture and responds.
Ayoka – So definite in her tastes and opinions. Stylish, smart, and faithful.
Colgan – Beautiful eyes that remind me of my uncle. Smart, insightful, intense and talented.
Vicky – Giving voice to a whole sector of arts administrators through having a clear vision for the Network of Arts Administrators of Color of Boston
James – Quiet fire and, when you get to know him, a solid, observant and warm human being.
Catherine – Has a dream and ba-bam!, is making the Boston Arts Music and Soul Festival a reality by assembling a team, creating a network and having events that are consistently professional, elegant and fun.
Marie-Claire – Knows more about what’s happening in culture and the arts than I do and shares it consistently. She is a champion at sharing useful information.
Aaron – He is a writer and a teacher who energizes, encourages, and elevates the writer in all who he encounters plus helped found Write on the Dot.
Dawn and Maurice – Director and Actor making the Front Porch Arts Collective a theatrical force using Black cultural voices whose works are rarely see in Boston and elevating local actors, directors, etc.. (Thank you for The God’s Closet Reading series, which featured the work of Marcus Gardley. I laughed (actually hollered a lot) and went deep with this series. that was so reflective of our beloved Black culture. )
Everyone, but two people on this list, are a youngish person between the ages of 24-40 They are youngish, gifted, and Black (minus one), living lives where they are pursuing their dreams, well-traveled, credentialed and educated, entrepreneurial, politically and socially active, and fun. Boston may lose some of them because the salaries in the non-profit realm in which they are all employed, doesn’t pay them enough to find places to live in the city. They are in the tough space between making too much and making too little.
(I’ll even bake a cake, I promise.)
I am in love and in like and in fascination with them. We (at least I) have moved far beyond the infatuation stage…I marvel at the wonder of them. I resist the urge to match-make (except in one case where a meeting in planned soon), hoping that this summer will provide me with opportunities to invite everybody over and share my home and food with them and let my husband meet the ones he hasn’t yet met. If some of these fascinating people connect, so much the better.
Around every corner, sitting next to you at the theater or movies; or on the subway or plane; or shopping at Boomerangs or for groceries , or scanning books, walking through the exhibit, or dancing at the concert is this absolutely fabulous person who you will fall in love and/or in like with, if you say hello and a connection is made.
<><><><><><><><>
If you like this post, you might also like:
Tribe of Good People