I think the most powerful need in human beings is for connection, and connection is something I have long struggled to find in my life. As I begin to be old, I am beginning to see it and find it, perhaps because I am open to it, perhaps because the people around me are opening me to it.

This morning, I wanted to take Maria out to breakfast to celebrate the dazzling launch of her new Kickstarter Project “Reclaiming Vintage Hankies,” which has raised more than $4,000 in two days to help reclaim and re-purpose the old vintage hankies she has been collecting and people have been sending her for months now (P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816). She still has 28 more days of funding to go, this seems to be a project people relate to.

Maria is surprised and humbled and nervous about Kickstarter, she is a very private person, this is a big opening up of the creative self. Good for her, it is an affirmation of the love so many people have for her and for her work. It’s not just me, I told her this morning.

When we got to the Round House, we find a trio of men from our town singing folk songs, they want to get together and start their own group, they were very good. As a writer, I have long envied the Paris cafe culture that thrived in the decades before World War II – Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce. People are too busy to hang out much in cafes, and if you do, nervous owners and pushy wait staff are apt to nudge you out when you are done eating.

In our little town in upstate New York, of all places, Scott Carrino and his wife Lisa have created a manifestation of that old cafe culture – the place is stuffed with writers, artists, singers and sketchers who are drawn to the good and fresh food, reasonable prices and the atmosphere that Scott has created. I am not one to hang out in cafes, but I love to hang out in this one, I see people from the town, friends bring me news I need to know, alert me to raging storms coming in, say nice things about my photos.

As we talked, we listened to the young musicians trying out their instruments, learning how to play together. I look forward to seeing them do it. It is not surprising they chose the Round House.

Almost every day someone comes up to me and says “are you Jon Katz?” and that used to make me wary, it does not any more, I appreciate the good words and connection. At the Round House, I can imagine more closely the world of Hemingway and Dos Passos, the opportunity to hand ought, have a cup of good coffee, share the meaning of what it means to be a human being. Life is curious and wonderful, who would have thought I would find such a place up here, and not ever in all of the great cities I used to live in.