Where were you 22 Years Ago on 9/11?

As I sit on a train headed home from Savannah, my first home town, for the last few days I have a feeling of destiny, connections, and wonderment.  (All non-Starbucks pics are of Savannah, so pretty in the spring!)

I realized this week, as much as my roots are in Savannah, my home town is Fort Lauderdale.  This came to me among two Starbucks, maybe four actually. 

The first two are in Savannah, one is near my folks, near the synagogue I grew up.  They all serve the same coffee, maybe one is a little hotter than another but basically the offerings are the same.

At the one near my folks, I met a friend from college Judy Hirsh.  We were at UGA together and she was a sweetheart for AEPi while dating her future husband from TEP.  I still am amazed at how well she navigated that world between two rivals.  It was great to catch up and hear the wonderment of her children, her efforts for Susan Komen and the Rambam Day School, and a good feeling inside to see that yes our generation has produced some fine children and great efforts to help mankind.

I had the pleasure of getting there a little early and was there another morning as well and was able to watch the locals coming in and out on a weekday and Saturday morning.  As they brought their kids in, as they walked in and out of their day, I realized as much as I enjoy being in that Savannah I really don't fit.  To be honest, there is a feeling of southern gentility, there are the families, the kids, the young girls who are waiting on their latte' and sandwich while their friends are calling to find out where they are.  There are the urgency or lack thereof an easy day but feeling like I could sit there every morning for a month and not necessarily fit in any more than I did at that moment.  Their lives are wonderful but the commonality with my own not so much.

The other Starbucks in Savannah is downtown on Broughton Street.  A little more diverse of a crowd between the locals downtown, the art students from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and the tourists.  You walk up to the Starbucks on Broughton Street and you feel a little different vibe from the one the day before.  The design is a little older fashioned.  A little more charming, and frankly a little more of an old fashioned coffee shop than the one the shopping center near my folks. 

It is nestled in this unique, for its time, planned community that started in 1733, you see a different Savannah emerge at least I Think so any way.  There is Forsythe Park surrounded by stately homes of what a capitol city would have looked like before Atlanta became the capitol of Georgia.  There are the squares with each one having their own unique personality, as they were meant to each have a community feel and a unique purpose for the new colony.  There are the trees with Spanish Moss hanging from their branches and you can imagine them looking similar over a few hundred years ago.  In Forsythe Park, there are the students playing Frisbee, the farmers market of local produce and some unique foods, and a bunch of kids possibly doing Zumba in the park making you see this lively town among all of the blooms of spring and the unique houses of years back.  This is a little more vibrant and as you head up the squares toward the river you feel this influence of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and how nice it is to have this younger influence downtown as compared to when I was growing up.  As a gay male, this seems more like the place I would fit in.  A little more artsy, a blend of locals, tourists, and students enjoying the lovely life of downtown Savannah.

I was thinking how would I fit in there on a day to day basis? Without a new profession or something radical I wouldn't fit in there either.  I don't work in Savannah, am single, and as a gay male don't think it would be easy to find my way into the community of the downtown arts and entertainment of Savannah.  Savannah, for all its maturity and tolerance, is still at its heart a lovely open hearted southern town and as much as I would like to believe I would fit in and enjoy the beauty of Savannah especially on a weekend such as this past one in early to late spring I wouldn't fit in with either Starbucks easily.

Contrast that to the other Starbucks(es) in my life.  I happen to wake up in the morning across a river from the gay hood of Wilton Manors.  I can go in to the Starbucks there, not know anyone in there, but I still feel a connection.  There are couples, singles, straight and gay and I can sit in there and watch the world come in and go and I don't feel like an outsider I feel included.  Again, the coffee is the same, the food offerings are the same but even the warmth of the baristas (maybe cause they have some memory that I have been there) make me feel as if I am in the community.  There I feel more naturally welcome and frankly included.  I don't have to imagine how I fit in, I just do.  I don't have to contemplate how I would have to change my life to be included, I just am. 

There is also the second Starbucks at the Beach, where I can slip in and nobody really knows my place in the world.  Am I a local, slipping away to the beach, do I live at the beach or am I a tourist feeling that’s since of relief that they found a Starbucks for that necessary caffeine addiction that I empathize with so well.  This one is embraced by my passion of late which lovely sunrises is looking over the Atlantic. 

This is not meant to be critical of Savannah at all.  Just a reality check in my life, I have thought about possibilities and the downtown scene of Savannah with its artsy southern charm that wasn't very inviting for me in my childhood, the possibility of life there really isn't meant for me.  It is never a bad thing to be able to figure out where your home is and as I sit on a long train home a new aura of contentment. 

For those of you who celebrate Passover, Easter, or just the awakening of spring may you all have a fabulous week and enjoy the changing season.