Interesting how we lie to ourselves to feel better about who we are—being human it’s only natural. However, we all have varying realities.
At a party in East Hampton, I met woman we’ll call Kathy, to respect her anonymity, even though she had little respect for others. She was from Brooklyn and believed it to be the universe center. As a child, I recall Brooklyn not being such a garden spot, (perhaps my reality), but fact was many who could, were leaving to raise families in the Burbs.
Granted Brooklyn went through a rebirth but it’s no Manhattan. Yet that didn’t stop Kathy from using the two interchangeably, punctuated with the declaration, “Being from the city, I never set foot on Long Island.” …Huh, geographically Brooklyn is on Long Island unlike Manhattan or “the Borough” as locals call it, which is a separate island.
Far be it from me to take issue with Kathy’s perception but she indirectly dissed the rest of the country! Within minutes of meeting me she blabbered. “I hate that phrase, as big as Texas, don’t you? What does that really mean anyway?”
She had similar opinions about other cool American places like Silicon Valley, Chicago and Washington D.C., which I wouldn’t repeat even in bad company. Nonetheless it was clear to my new acquaintance that, “there was no place like New York.”
Her sense of self-importance is not uncommon to New Yorkers, to which I plead guilty at times, but her assumption that everywhere else has less worth, was flat wrong.
Since I was occupied with a second scotch and she was a buzz kill, I opted for some entertainment.
“Where else have you lived Kathy besides Brookline?” I asked.
“New York born and breed. Why would I go anywhere else?”
“Well maybe because in 1983 something called the internet made New York’s cutting-edge info on fashion, art and so on, accessible worldwide, which is why they call it the world wide web.”
My laughter quelled the rising temperature that was putting her chilled martini at risk.
“Then in 1997 a company called Amazon went public and you could effortlessly buy anything sold in New York, anywhere in the country.” A sinker right over the plate for strike two. She gripped the glass stem dumfounded that a homeboy could disrespect The City.
Fortunately, at that perfect moment, a waitress brought two fresh drinks and either Kathy felt obliged to stay or was too drunk to move. I of course, used the opportunity to enlighten her on history. “During the pandemic I understand there were city people who never left their apartments. Where I live, no hay problema.”
I continued with a whisk of, was cooler than you in high school. “Ya, golf courses put enough social distance between people so there was no need for masks.”
Then I tapped the breaks for a five-mile slide. “For someone who lived in the same place for so long you may have missed how the rest of the country lives. Seem your thinking very 20th century.”
She grimaced before the words left my mouth, tightened her grip on that poor martin glass stem and said. “There’re too many damn immigrants in New York, that’s the problem!”
Squinting my Popeye eye I pointed, “See the beautiful blond over there talking to the bartender? That’s my wife and she’s an immigrant.”
Kathy turned to look, then leaned into me and whispered. “She’s adorable and it’s so hard to tell —from where?”
“England. Her family came over on the Mayflower. They are documented too, as the first to buy and pay for, land from Native Americans.” My Cheshire Cat grin turned to Cherokee stealth, “likely Native Americans feel the same as you do about too many damn immigrants.”
Mocking her white race card, would have been enough but for all those who suffer her conceit, I twisted the knife. “My wife was from Wyoming and her first time meeting my family in New York she asked why, “everybody in New York City looks so pasty.”
“Never noticed it myself but since that day, can’t get the image of weakling aliens starved for adequate sunlight roaming the streets of a once mighty city.”
Perhaps at that point I should have asked Kathy how long her people were there but I got the distinct sense she wanted to spill her drink on me before she walked away.
Don’t get me wrong, I love New York!
I just don’t buy Kathy’s self-indulgent hype. People come to New York to make it, like “Inventing Anna” and make it or not, many stay, caught up in the wonderful charm of all that city action. The unavoidable result though is overcrowding.
That many people living so close becomes a rat race extraordinaire. Services can never keep ahead of the crowd curve which spawns systemic corruption, way too high taxes for too few services and crime by those desperately on the bottom trying to survive.
Maybe as a shield against that reality attitude becomes all pervasive. Notwithstanding there’s nothing you get living in New York that you can’t get anywhere else in the country—except maybe for agita.
I saw the writing on wall, when the first non-broker trained CEO was appointed at MERRILL LYNCH. My boss, who answered directly to that CEO, said to me after first meeting him, “…some people make bold moves to climb to the top. Others hide behind them so they don’t get shot in hopes of reaping spoils, if others fail. Time to take the severance package before this ship blows itself up…” I requested mine to be finalized on May 8th the day Joan of Arc liberated Paris in 1429. Not long after, two executives and I were advising other firms on how to be better Broker-Dealers. Four months almost to the day, on what would have been my usual quarterly visit to Merrill Lynch headquarters in New York City. The Twin Towers were attacked. Seven years later my old firm MERRILL LYNCH collapsed under subprime and credit default swap mistakes. The rest of the financial markets and the country’s economy followed.
Author and Journalist Kevin Palmer strategicmanagementadvisors.com
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Hidden secrets first-time millionaires have used to gain abundance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE_vB0e6akg&feature=youtu.be