Two Things Can Be True At The Same Time
September Is A Reminder Why
My childhood memories of the excitement of going back to school after a long summer, wearing brand new shoes, carrying composition notebooks full of clean, lined pages just waiting to be written in have never left me, both in my corporate career and now as a University Professor.
September has always brought me both great joy in anticipation of new beginnings and a profound sadness in not being sure I want to let go of summer - at least not just yet. September is my reminder of how two things can be true at once. I felt it again this past week as the Fall semester began, and I stood in front of my first class.
New classes. New students. New beginnings. New stories to write. And still there was that pull deep in my psyche wanting to cling to the longer, sun-filled days just a little bit longer.
Two things can be true at the same time.
This week was also blessed with what can only be described as spectacular New York weather. Perfect for US Open Tennis. Not too hot, yet not chilly enough for a sweater, the sky a perfect robin’s eye blue, interspersed with an occasional fluffy white cloud. It was exactly the kind of weather that fell on our fair city twenty-four years ago this Thursday, on September 11. Perfect weather combined with the horror of watching two planes crashing into what were then the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan. Both images will be seared into my memory until the day I die.
Two things can be true at the same time.
My parents were married on September 16. For so many years, September meant celebrating their anniversary - cards, cakes, watching them get dressed up to go out to a special dinner, just the two of them - until the September day in 1986 when my father died. Then it became a time to celebrate and a time to grieve.
Two things can be true at the same time.
This week, as I was walking along the waterfront, I ran into a neighbor I had not seen in a long time. When he asked how I was, my reply was my standard one these days. As long as I don’t get mired in the news for too long, I am good. He laughed. But he got it.
I have health, work I love, a roof over my head, friends, and family that make up my community - all of which bring me great joy and happiness. At the same time, I am full of anger, worry, and fear as I watch the country that I love being overrun by a cast full of unqualified characters in charge of our health, safety, and livelihoods - one that was on full display this week.
Two things can be true at the same time.
Someone on social media this week called me a “typical, arrogant New Yorker.” They don’t know me. I am far from typical anything, and I am not arrogant, although I do have a low tolerance for people who are inconsiderate of others. I talk to strangers as habit. Technically, I don’t even live in NY, but will forever consider myself a New Yorker. But this person decided my one comment gave me this classification. This person could not imagine that they might interpret my comment as arrogant, but I might not be.
Two things can be true at the same time.
The media - in particular, social media feed us so much ragebait each day that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that not everything is either black or white. Not everything has a concise answer that we can easily access from a quick search on Google or Perplexity. Not everything and everyone has only one facet to them. Two things can be true at the same time. September is a case in point.
💭 If that doesn’t make sense, maybe this does:
❓Nike’s Just Do It story evolves to Why Do It? via Adweek
🤖The State of Social Media via Sprout Social
📚Got an important pitch coming up? Have I got a book for you!!
Way to go Joanne, well said!