Together, we survived the adversity — magic

This past week, I had my thirteen-year-old grandson in NYC. Yes, I’m a little old to be so bold. He knew it was an educational trip, so each night I asked him what he learned. His answers were fun and funny because what he learned was usually not on my radar. For example, on the first day, he said, “I learned the airport is slightly built on the water.” I said, “It is?”

It made me think of the first-grader who asked, “Why don’t your top teeth move when you talk?” I had to touch and move my jaw before answering; in other words, I had never thought about the mechanics of my jaw.

We had a great time visiting Ground Zero/One-World Observatory and Museum, Lady Liberty, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), Broadway’s Lion King, and Yankee Stadium when they played the Seattle Mariners.

He was my subway navigator and my walking compass. He said he loved geography, and since I didn’t, we were a great team.

Returning to Colorado, we experienced twenty hours of delays, rerouting, and lost luggage. It was a very long day for a grandma and a newly christened teenager. But it was priceless.

On our return home, when everything but a plane crash happened, he looked at me and said, “Grandma, this has been the worst day of my life!” I wanted to say, “I know, me too!” But, trying to keep him from melting down, I said, “Oh, now, we are not bleeding, in a hospital, and we don’t have broken bones—we’re okay.”

Two things in NYC that seemed so different from when I was there a year ago were the cost and the crowds. Times Square was, to use my grandson’s words, “. . . very chaotic—very compact with lots of people.”

Soda drinks were between ten and twenty dollars, water ranged from a dollar to eight dollars, depending on the vendor, and I felt like the oldest person on the island of Manhattan. I wondered where the parents of all the young people were and how these kids managed to afford food, shopping, and entertainment.

What does this have to do with mental health? It’s subtle, and I share this because we do need to be real, laugh at ourselves, stretch our self-restricting options, and own up to the less-than-smart choices we make. It’s also an example of the value of staying calm and not falling into a pit of despair when things happen that are beyond our control. It also shows the impact one person can have on others—all passengers, including a family with three small, very tired, and impatient daughters, laughed, shared information, and made the best of it.

Together, we survived the adversity — magic.

Until the next time: Live while you live.

Jennifer Goble, Ph.D., LPC, is the author of “My Clients…My Teachers,” and the blogger and writer of Rural Women Stories: www.ruralwomenstories.com.