"Around the Corner"

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 There is a line from West Side Story which sums up one of my little pleasures in life. "Around the corner." I like coming upon an unexpected event, place, or person. I delight in the happenstance of reading a book and discovering the date mentioned is the day I was actually reading. For instance, last Saturday, I started KILLING THE KUDU and cheered when I saw in the opening paragraph, "June 4th." I was reading it on June 4th! On a visit to Nova Scotia, I was strolling down some streets which might or might not be leading to Halifax harbor. I went around a corner and there was a Greenpeace vessel. I was wearing my Greenpeace button! I had no idea the ship was in town, so to speak. I mentioned to Carolyn Meyer I had ordered a copy of WHERE THE BROKEN HEART STILL BEATS  and she said, coincidentally, that after twenty years, she was just informed it was being reissued with a new cover. I came around a corner of a path at Central Park and there was my favorite ballerina, all in white doing her, "still" act. She stands motionless until someone puts a donation in her tin pail and then she does a quick, graceful dance and blows a kiss. I didn't have a dollar to throw in but I blurted out, "It's so good to see you!" as though he were my lucky talisman and she winked. I came around a corner and there at the Pulitzer Plaza fountain were the impressive bronze figures of the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei (last names first in Chinese). He is currently imprisoned in China for supposed economic crimes which as far as I'm concerned is criminal. He is the son of the poet Ai Qing and that poetic quality infuses the statues, especially the Dragon. The following information comes from the NY Parks & Recreation newsletter, The Daily Plant: Full Circle focuses on the inspiration for Ai's current project: the ransacked 18th-century zodiac fountain clock designed by European Jesuits for the imperial retreat known as the Yuanming Yuan (the Garden of Perfect Brightness). 

...may the blessings of found joys be yours...