The Crispy Goat

Three weeks left of my summer in the city. Today someone asked me if I liked it here and wanted to stay. I gave them the long answer: I love the level and intensity of training. I love the overall quality of theater. I love the public transportation and that you can walk everywhere. I love the park culture. I love the food. I really love the people. I do miss home though. But what it really boils down to here, more than any place I've experienced, is this city's overall passion for life. 

The other day, I had lunch at a grilled cheese shop. By myself and after a quick yelp search. I had the Crispy Goat - applewood smoked bacon, avocado, goat cheese and gruyere. Yeah, be jealous. Anyway, as I'm leaving, the guy behind the counter asks me how I liked it. (It was good.) "We take our grilled cheese very seriously here," he responded with smile. (Oh yeah?) "We don't cut corners. We use local bread, the best cheese. We want our grilled cheese to be the best. People come from all over just for this." He probably went on for two minutes, which is like half a day in NYC time.  

I dunno about you, but I'm not sure that I've met anyone ever so passionate about grilled cheese. But that's the way it is here - people fully commit to their passions, whatever they may be, and without apology. It was so inspiring. Really brings new light to the question, "Why do anything half-assed?" I wrote a poem about it. Enjoy:

The Crispy Goat. 
Photo retrieved from their Yelp page.

The Cheese Grille

There is power in Passion

For the Grilled Cheese Sandwich -

To approach it as an Art,

With Dignity and Respect. 

To select each Slice, 

To test each Transformation,

And to Caress such result

With each sense of your Soul

So that you Grow and Transform 

With the Sandwich itself. 

If life were to be treated 

As such a Grilled Cheese Sandwich -

Life would be worth living indeed. 

Whoda thunk. Sometimes, its the most simple things in life that can reveal the most depth. 

And as though the universe was really speaking to me, I'll conclude with a slice from a Backstage article that appeared in my inbox shortly after this experience:

"Happiness is not sustained with the attainment of what you seek, but in the passionate seeking of it, for in that seeking life gains purpose. Something once sought but now possessed quickly looses its ability to satisfy because the heart soon longs for something new for which to strive, for a new purpose. 

In other words, if you want to make someone truly miserable and bored, give them everything they want the instant they want it. If you want to make someone truly happy, allow them to pursue each of their heart’s new desires."