I hope everyone has been well. I promise postings will pick up again over the next week. Things have been hectic with the winding down of the semester. Complicating this is that we’re moving from our apartment to another in the same building. Taking all of our stuff from the first floor to the second, I can’t help but wonder how I acquired all this stuff. I was leaving a library event yesterday evening and on my way to the subway at 34th Street and 8th Avenue heading home I saw clusters of sailors in town for fleet week. It is always something to see them.

I took time out from grading papers to get to the In Flanders Fields Memorial event at DeWitt Clinton Park this morning. There are many doughboy statues across America, including some fine ones here in New York, but this one is striking in its simple dignity. I attended this event year and it is a moving experience to take in the ceremony and hear the reading of In Flanders Fields. I was having a conversation with someone at the reception afterwards and we were saying how fleet week and the annual In Flanders Fields program are so good for New York City because most New Yorkers are cut off culturally from their military.

The season starts this weekend at Governors Island, though I won’t be there because I’m doing the move and preparing to wrap up the academic year and submit grades. It should be a nice weekend to be on the island if one lives in the area. It’s hard to believe summer is here.