On Opening Day, I thought I’d add (yet) another list of stuff I kinda like, this one about things that start something, or foretell something, foreshadow, or even start the process of anticipation. Sometimes, the thing that starts something is more exciting than what follows (Opening Day is the perfect example: if you had to graph my baseball excitement, the valley between Opening Day and, say, mid June, would be pretty deep, but only because the plusses of Opening Day are so high ).
1. Opening Day. I prefer the sound of hockey, the sharp hum of skates slicing across ice particularly, but the idea of Opening Day is the best one in sports. It is not a manufactured TV extravaganza (hello NFL Kick-Off). It means and stands for something, the start of spring and the end of winter, green grass, people playing outdoors (as opposed to athletes). And given the slog of the baseball season, and how quickly teams start to separate themselves in the standings, it is, more than in any other sports’ opening day – or whatever they call it – full of hope, a kind of blanket optimism, that also is a herald of the coming spring. Even as a Montrealer, someone who has not really been able to celebrate a proper Opening Day for many years now, the start of baseball season still stirs something in me, because, frankly, it is impossible not to be stirred. (and Bud Selig is a big fat asshead used-car salesman fuckface and never mind the fact that the whole idea of first pitch in Cincinnati has been abandoned for no good reason).
2. Stepping into a great restaurant, preferably Oriental. Like the amazing Soot Bull Jeep in LA. Or Cuisine Szechuan in Montreal. The assault on the senses, especially on the nose, that hits you when you open the door, when you enter the atmosphere of a place, means you are no longer outside, you are in the realm of the senses, the universe of the meal you are about to eat, and you can start to taste things, your memories kick into overdrive, and good things are about to happen.
3. A new book. This is a metaphor in and of itself so no point in belabouring this one. If, on the other hand, the book doesn’t deliver, this is an astonishing disappointment. Something close to criminal.
4. Getting on an airplane. I have travelled a lot. I’ve been lucky enough to do so. And yet I still see flight, especially, as magical. I still find the first moment of lift off, that first instant where the aircraft leaves gravity behind and lets the technology take over, as something imbued with wonder.
5. Unwrapping a present. I know. Call me a kid. But who doesn’t like unwrapping a gift? How could you not? Even the most cynical, world weary person has some small part of them inside that feels delight in the idea of receiving something gift wrapped. Unless, you know, it’s a bomb.
