2005-05-01 - 3:20 p.m.
My first ever entry in this journal was the text of an Evite, announcing my plans to walk through Providence�s bus tunnel up to Thayer Street on the tenth anniversary of a party/minor riot I went to there. A number of people have asked me how it went. What did I find?
It was one of the coolest things I�ve ever done. A couple of friends joined me for drinks beforehand. That place I suggested in the Evite (3 Steeple St.) was closed, so we went to Olive�s. I found this place incredibly depressing. It had vague pretensions of sophistication, but there was a live band playing Billy Joel�s �New York State of Mind� and I got the feeling I was in the hippest place in Fort Wayne, IN. Ex-waitress friend Jill concurred and we moved to the XO Caf� to get hammered.
And then I walked through. Confronted the past all by myself. Went all the way through the tunnel from Main St. to Thayer. No cops came through to stop me and buses stop using it around midnight. I�m so glad I did it.
What was at the end? A convenience store and Jill, waiting for me in her car and laughing her head off. It made more sense than I ever could have imagined. At the end of the tunnel there�s just more life. There�s your friends to laugh with you and places selling Twinkies. There�s no magic terminus. Things go on.
As I said in the Evite, nothing has ever turned out the way I expected. Nothing ever will for any of us. Thank God; otherwise what boring lives we would all have. Roll with it. Change. Adapt. And be part of the way things turn out. It may not ever end up just how you want, but I would urge you to contribute to the process.
Now.
� 2005 Geoff Gladstone
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