Feelin' Groovy

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This past week I was on a 5 day business trip to Las Vegas (hence missing a couple of Power Pantry posts…) It was a whirlwind travel and conference excursion which peaked with a 19 hour day last Sunday (7am to midnight) as we participated with 33,000 other conventioneers. Our investment of time and effort turned out to be quite successful, and we are really pleased with the results of the whole trip.

Before we left I had already settled on the theme and content for this post, born out of the 1966 tune from Simon & Garfunkel. I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s and one of my favorite albums growing up was the ‘Concert in Central Park’ by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel (1982). What a classic.

The 59^th Street Bridge Song has always been one of those happy, jaunty tunes to re-center me on keeping it simple: “Slow down, you move too fast… you got to make the mornin’ last, just kickin’ down the cobblestones, lookin’ for fun and feelin’ groovy…” Ahhh… I feel more relaxed already.

One of our ‘after hours’ receptions in Las Vegas was at “The Bank”, a nightclub at The Bellagio – what an experience. It encompassed everything a stereotypical stays-in-Vegas night club experience could include (though we didn't participate in any of them). No further details need to be shared here…

Needless to say, we lasted about 30 minutes at The Bank and excused ourselves to return to the (insane) sanity of the Bellagio casino floor. One of my coworkers, who hails from Williamsport, joked that it would take him a week sitting in the woods of northern PA to detox from the whole nightclub thing.

Pursuing a lifestyle of wellness has a lot to do with our food choices and what’s in our pantry, and it also has a lot to do with the experiences we surround ourselves with. Are our lives more like the blur of a Las Vegas nightclub, or the serenity of the PA woods? I live in Lancaster County and love it. There’s a lot that Lancaster County isn’t, but I’m regularly taken by the romance of the bucolic and pastoral surroundings, and I know our family's life is better because of it.

So what can you do this Memorial Day weekend to slow down, find a little romance in the moment and feel groovy for a while? The opportunity is right in front of each of us… there for the taking. We have to be looking for some peace and peace of mind though, if we ever hope to find it.

By the Way

I have Simon & Garfunkel's 'Concert in Central Park' on LP (those are large vinyl records which play at 33 1/3 RPMs on a turntable... they are now basically antiques). It was the special edition, two record set. The concert was actually a benefit event held in September of 1981, with the proceeds going to Central Park, which had fallen into disrepair. The crowd for the concert was reported at over a half million, so it was quite a success.

The 59th Street Bridge Song is a feel-good kind of song. Paul Simon, being from New York City, wrote it because of a walk across the 59th Street Bridge after an especially down time in his life, which he was coming out of. The song marked his turning a corner to a happier season - good lesson there...