I lived in Manhattan, in the upper West Side. I remember people claiming that the neighborhood had been discovered (roughly the area between 72nd St. and Broadway – 110th St. and Riverside Drive). West End Avenue, where I lived, was between Broadway and Riverside. Old apartment buildings that had been in ill repair were cleaned up with attractive lobbies and operational elevators. Their early 20th century charm had been restored, so the past seemed to echo in the walls of the apartments. Mine was a studio with a galley kitchen, large bedroom and bath. In 1978 – 1979, during my time in the city, there were no stream-lined look alike Starbuck’s on nearly every corner. There were, however, neighborhood cafes filled with people with hot drinks to go as they hurried on and off their respective subway stops.
I remember Café La Fortuna, near 79th and Broadway. The place was packed with musicians, poets, and students who thrived on the arias played there as they sipped iced chocolate cappuccinos and indulged in cannoli or black forest cake. The café boasted a small outside garden in the back, a haven on hot nights during the summer months. A friend from undergraduate days introduced me to it on a wet, dreary night in February. We were chilled to the bone; the lively conversations enveloped the two of us into its happy hum. I recall the rich, black forest cake placed before me as I welcomed the accompanying hot cappuccino set carefully by my side. So, we talked, Joy and other friends, and shared plans of graduate school and job possibilities. I recall a feeling of invincibility at the time. The decades were spread out before me and held anticipation. I have undergone a mind shift in these later years as much of life has been lived with no turning back.
Yet, decades later, I find similar comforts and coffee options in a popular café downtown. The conversations continue to blend into the pleasant hum I experienced nearly 50 years ago. While I drink my usual double shot cappuccino with extra foam, I feel the same enjoyment now as I did then. Consciously or unconsciously, people are making memories while they recall old ones. I do the same and find reassurance somehow. After all, the same dynamics are in play. Although many years have passed, I still appreciate the strong, rich taste of coffee; I still take in the inviting atmosphere. While the players have changed, the memory-making warmth continues. We are meant to take pleasure in being. The passing years do not need to cast a pall on the present day. Many writers have expressed the importance of being “in the moment”. My observations are not unique. They don’t need to be. I guess the quiet cold of the January sun causes me to remember other brisk winters with its inevitable matter-of-factness.
Nevertheless, the uncertainty of the future does create a degree of anxiety; human nature dictates it. However, with the change of time and setting comes the knowledge and wisdom of existing patterns of life. I find myself encouraged by the sameness of things. Café La Fortuna no longer exists; but other coffee haunts do. While it is tempting to get overwhelmed by time’s relentless passage, we are provided with many promises in God’s Word that are meant to set us back on course.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
