Cold and Rainy
I spent my entire adult life living in the Northeastern United States, most of it in the Metro New York area, but also up here in Ithaca. Using Ithaca for this math, the average annual rainfall is 37.4 inches, with snowfall of 63.3 inches, resulting in 159.3 days with precipitation, leaving 155 sunny days. That compares to Escondido, which only gets 15.2 inches of rain (no snow) on 41.6 rainy days and 263 sunny days. The amount of precipitation doesn’t seem so dramatically different, but having 4X the rainy days and only 60% 0f the sunshine seems more in keeping with the significant difference in feel of the two locales.
I was surprised earlier this year with the amount of rainy weather we were getting and how long it lasted into the May timeframe. Others told me that was not so unusual, but even after only a few weeks of it, it felt more like being in the East than being in the West. Today I am sitting here in Ithaca on a cool and rainy day. The weather gods were nice enough to allow us to have great sunny weather over the long weekend, but they are now taking their due by having it be a good back-to-work condition with grey skies and the threat of rain most of the day, though not too much actual precipitation to speak of.
Today was the day for son Thomas and Jenna to drive home and for Matthew and Phillip to whisk away my dear Kim to Manhattan, where she will see a show or two, see cabaret friends and rehearse with Lenny for her October Cabaret Convention performance at Lincoln Center. We joke with Kim that now that she has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, all that’s left for her are the Kennedy Center and the White House. Neither of which probably make much room in their schedules for a lesser light cabaret singer, no matter how good she may be. So, Carolyn and family and I are left to our own devices cleaning up from the 4th and preparing for some added guests (the family of an old Beehive venture Capital colleague) later in the week. James and his family are preparing for their oldest son to matriculate this Fall at Cornell, something I was modestly involved with by virtue of writing him a recommendation letter (most of which largely go unnoticed). I am thrilled to see this happen because James is a hard-working salt-off-the-earth person for whom I have the highest regard. There is nothing I like to see more than goos hard-working people not just making good, but getting a leg up on life by giving their next generations a piece of the American Dream and the opportunity to change their and their family’s stars in a meaningful way.
The topic of college matriculation came up yesterday and it is clear that many of the old standards like legacy advantage and the other means of white privilege are going by the wayside, not only due to changing demographics and broader educational advantages thanks to the increasing digitization of knowledge. I, personally, think that is a wonderful thing, even though my grandchildren could, in theory suffer from that change. We have been a three generation Cornell family, but I would rather see my grandchildren go to whatever college they want and whatever best suits their interests and capabilities. I am less and less keen on seeing kids get undue advantage in the college admissions process. The recent admissions scandal, while very specific to a small group of people and very much oriented towards athletic admission inroads, still reminded us all that the system is often rigged and the playing field is never as level as it should be.
I got into Cornell not because of my mother and her legacy, since she was simply not a Cornell donor, so whatever legacy there was, it was minimal at best. On the other hand, I was a major donor and I was quick to add that I was not against giving my kids access to a better education and I believe that my donor involvement happened to peak right when my kids were up for consideration. they were all well within the range of the candidate pool that gained admission, but I don’t doubt that they got a meaningful edge due to my status. I am neither proud of that nor do I necessarily think it gained any of the three excessive advantage. My oldest son, Roger, has been quite explicit in saying that had he gone to a school that was more geared to his needs and interests, he might have graduated. Needless to say, that makes me feel horrible. It does no good to say that my kids had free choice to go elsewhere because the family legacy was a pretty strong bias they each felt in their own way and chose to go with the flow and matriculate at Cornell. It was the family school. I believe my daughter Carolyn and youngest son, Thomas benefit from Cornell mostly in the relationships they gained from it. Both have or will soon marry Cornell graduates and I believe that will prove over time to be a great benefit to them each, less because of the Cornell imprimatur and more because they met marvelous people through Cornell and I am not prepared to believe that would have a happened necessarily or to the same degree at other schools.
Carolyn and I have spent the day today doing chores for which no Cornell degree is needed. We washed and changed linens in the carriage house (actually also going to Target to buy new pillows and bedding once I got a look at the miserable condition of our guest linens. I figure we should go out in some degree of style and make sure our friends and guests are comfortable to the end. I also packed a few more boxes and mailed off two boxes filled with artwork to myself and two boxes filled with Deruta pottery to my sister, who had requested them if they were available. I’m happy to share the stuff of this house with others beyond my nuclear family, since they have all had ample time to lay claim to any of the stuff that they wanted. If it is still available, which was the case with those Deruta items, I’m quite happy to see someone else get some pleasure and use out of them. So, I used a boatload of bubble wrap in hopes that they will arrive at her house intact. As a bit of a statement to the universe, I am sending all these packages the cheapest and slowest way and not adding any extra insurance beyond the standard $100 coverage offered by FedEx or UPS. There is nothing that I have here that I and others cannot live without and it is less about the cost of the insurance and more about the sentiment that junk will not give us happy lives or even memories per se.
The weather was perfect for these and other chores, including a run to the recycling center with an SUV filled again with garbage. I have always found simple tasks rewarding since they feel important in their simplicity and humble in their physicality. Everyone needs a cold and rainy day now and again to set our minds straight and ground us. It not only helps us appreciate the sunnier days, but it even reminds us that we are fortunate we can choose to spend our days in simple tasks rather than being destined and relegated to a life of menial tasks with no ability to change our stars.