The Bruce Springsteen of Queens: From the Heart

Back after weeks in Nowhereland, USA, and the B.S.O.Q. is thrilled to be back in your brains, your hearts and your computers. Let me start by saying thank you to all my lovers and supporters. This guy in the back of the room knows what I’m talkin’ about! Hey Bob, keep on truckin’, I LOVE YOU MAN !

On a serious note, I was gone for a while dealing with some family stuff. It was a very enlightening experience. When you live in the old NYC, sometimes you think you’re life is so busy that you don’t have time to make a phone call once or twice a week. You think that your life of social calendars and house-warming parties and running for trains is more important than REAL LIFE and RELATIONSHIPS (at least more pressing), and all things outside of the 5 boroughs can wait.

But when something happens, and you find out you might be losing someone you love. Then you’re not so sure anymore. Everything stops.

Did I say all the things I wanted to? Does she know how much she means to me?  Does she know how much she’s done for me? Does she know that I was ready to be done, but she helped give me the strength to go on?

Then things start to move in slow motion. Suddenly you’ve got all this time to sit down and have one-on-one conversations with people that it feels like you haven’t talked to in 15 years. And you start telling everyone you love them, instead of worrying it might not be macho or you might feel awkward.

Bottom line: I know it’s been said before, but if you love someone, tell them. And if someone has changed your life or made the difference for you, tell them, because you might not have the time you’re banking on.

I said to my grandmother before I left Baton Rouge, Louisiana, "Maw Maw, you know how you said you felt lost for the first time in your life?"

She shook her head.

"Well, I did when I got here. But now I feel . . . I feel . . . "

"You feel found."

"I feel found . . . by family, by . . . "

And she looked at me with the faith and conviction of a person who has been pushed to the edge more times than she can count. "Nathan, YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE YOUR FAMILY."

Guys, this week, in honor of my grandmother, I’m not going to outline some cool bar or nifty take-out taco stand. I’m just going to say I LOVE YOU Maw Maw Katie .

And as for the Springsteen of the Week, I don’t have one. But she is the SPRINGSTEEN OF MY LIFE.

And as for me, I don’t really want to be the Bruce Springsteen of Queens this week. I just want to be Nathan, a grandson, who loves his grandma. And that feels like enough.

So thanks for reading this week and every week. I appreciate your thoughts, prayers and whatever else you can summon for my grandmother and our family. I look forward to getting back in the saddle next week. And tell someone you haven’t told lately, or ever, I love you . Especially, on this most tragic anniversary, where many of you lost a loved one in 9/11 or knew those who did, remember, it’s okay to tell someone how you feel about them.

I LOVE YOU GUYS.

– Nathan

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