Making Good Choices

Making Good Choices
Originally uploaded by lorenzodom

Making Good Choices

Last night I went dancing in my pajamas.
Or rather, in pajamas; for if I don’t use them
as pajamas, are they still pajamas?
In other words, I didn’t sleep in them;
I simply danced in them, and I walked
through the park in them, and I felt comfortable,
and good and delightfully unconventional in them.
No one seemed to notice, no one seemed to care,
it is New York City after all, after all.
I only wish I could wear them to work.
Alas, that’s not “appropriate,” and I would likely
no longer have a job if I did. Hence,
we make choices.

I chose to wear my pajamas
out dancing last night. It was
one of the best choices I’ve made
in a long time.

F&I were the only
ones dancing too. Everyone else
pretended to watch the silent boxing match
on the teles overhead, or just tapped their fingers
on the bar instead. The sad truth is
Manhattan is pretty empty on summer
weekends. Thus, you have 6-piece
Latin bands like Yerason performing
alone, in practically empty spaces.

I persuaded F to dance with me, in front of everyone,
alone, by telling her it was an insult to let
this wonderful band play and to have no
one dancing to their beautiful Cuban Son. I told her
“There is no better experience than when
you have a restaurant all to yourself, or
a movie theater in the middle of the afternoon
all to yourself, or a dance floor—all to yourself.”

Hence, we danced until they stopped playing;
we closed the joint at 1 AM, along with the handful
of lonely locals sipping at their amber-colored nightcaps.

The sweat that covered my body dried
quickly in the cool breeze as we walked home
down Broadway, if only because I was wearing
light striped seersucker baby-blue PJ bottoms.
I had made a good choice, dancing was a good choice.
Spending a weekend with F was a good choice.
Living life as you please, regardless of how others
might measure or judge or think of you
is a good choice.

Wear pajamas more often, or at least,
as often as you can.

*

(R&O thank you for the inspiration)
Lorenzo