The day before Thanksgiving, as I was getting off from work it began to snow…I was over the moon. I have never been in a city where it snows before, and somehow it fills the air with magic, like something exciting is coming.

I think this must be the magic of well illustrated children’s books… that simple weather phenomenon’s can be given majestic qualities that stay with us until we are old. That evening I bundled up again and strolled down to a local Inn I had heard about. Inside I found my favorite new corner of the city… the room reminded me of you for various reasons, but let me tell you about it briefly. The lounge area, which is attached to a restaurant looks like an old English study and had the smell of cigars and fireplace. Inviting couches were placed in front of the hearth and stools and low tables, made more room for quests. Other tables and chairs were scattered around the room that’s dark interior made for comfortable and intimate conversations. On the walls hung traditional English paintings of water coloured cottages and people long since gone. (Come to think of it, some of them looked vaguely reminiscent of paintings I admired around your grandparents place).

My roommates and I unbundled and I settled on a stool in front of the fire to defrost. I ordered a glass of Indian Sherry and instantly felt nostalgic.

Cold days in Scotland, where the weather is an additional level of grey and the fire a different touch of warm….tea in small kitchens after a walk through the lake district in Northern England… studies in the english countryside… and walks along the Canterbury Trail.
We sat about talked about our favorite books, and how particular books had gripped us as children. Did you read the Hardy Boy’s books? There were so many book series I missed as a child as I struggled through reading…(and so many now that I just wish I could tackle… but don’t seem to find the time). Literature and quiet places like that remind me of you… which I guess is another example of how we make associations out of our imaginations. You and I have never sat in any room like that before, but I still think you would have enjoyed the Sherry and added insight into our conversation about books and childhood.

As life seems to diverge in many directions, my mind seems to naturally drift to thoughts about the constant stones that I can look back on in my life. Like this little room, I wonder how many of the comfortable places are really figments of my imagination, only as true as my power to recollect or create them. Even so, it was comforting to find a room like this… and to find others within it that seemed to equally embrace not only the room but the life it radiated (like the french PhD student we sat next to who was working at the World Bank on land distribution issues in South Africa, and had recently returned from Brazil- which delighted my Portuguese-obsessed Persian roommate).

I have many other things which I would love to bounce off you…maybe when you are state-side, we can catch each other by phone (What a poor substitute for a couch and a fireplace) and I can get your opinion on the arts and creativity and how to integrate it into my passion for justice and helping those in need.

All my warmest thoughts to an old friend who fits well into my concept of home,
Fay