My daughter Emma arrives today via train from New York City. I’ll pick her up in Albany, the nearest train stop from the farm. Emma has not seen the new farm, nor met Red. She lives in Brooklyn and loves it. Emma has a rich and satisfying life in New York. She lives with Jay Jaffe, a pioneer baseball stat writer and she is a a writer and editor for SportsOnEarth, the hot new sports site, a collaboration between Major League Baseball and USA Today.
It always seems a little strange to me that Emma and I live so far apart and in such different ways, but our lives are really not that different when you think about it. We both are in committed relationships, we both write with a lot of attitude, we both love what we do. And we both seem to love dogs. She lives with Pearl, a dog I have her after she badgered me for two years. Emma and I do share one thing – we are willful.
Emma’s sportswriter life was triggered when I took her to a Yankees game when she was 14. I was not aware of it, but that game seems to have altered her life a bit. You never know. I would never have pegged Em as a sportswriter but she has taken to it and writes with her trademark humor, irony and much insight. I love the way she has put her life together, and she, like most of us, has weathered some rough spots.
Em is not all that interested in the country, like many city people. She considers life her a bit odd. This is to be expected from someone who has 500 restaurants within walking distance. But we are committed to staying connected with one another. Like many children of divorced parents, there were some bumpy periods, but we have never stopped loving one another or working to stay connected. Sometimes I go down there, sometimes she comes up here.
Em views the country as a curious place to live and I can’t say she is much interested in donkeys or sheep. But there are many places where we connect. We are going to have a good time, I am so happy she is coming. Tonight, I’m cooking her my new trademark dish – multi-grain pizza with ricotta cheese, garlic bits, chard, tomato, slicked zucchini and sliced blue potato. She and Jay are into gourmet cooking and she is cooking dinner for Maria and me tomorrow night. Broccoli rabe I think.
In between all of this, we’re going to the movies – seeing Silver Lining – and Sunday, lunch at the Thai restaurant in Williamstown, Mass., on the way back to the train. She’s leaving Sunday. In February I hope to get down there. I miss New York. Emma is eager to meet Red, and I suspect the two of them will get to know one another. Because it’s a cold night, we will loan her Lenore who is happy to cuddle with guests in their bed. I don’t know if I will ever to get used to living so far apart from my daughter, but I am the one who left and moved up here and I am the one who needs to live happily with it. I will. I am very excited Emma is coming her to see where I am living and what I am doing. The world feels much more in sync that way.