We spent the last night of July in the Dauble Tree by Hilton NYC Airport Hotel. The hotel is located just outside JFK airport in the Borough of Queens New York in the neighborhood of Jamaica. Our only familiarity with Queens is from the 1988 movie, “Coming to America”. Eddie Murphy played an African Prince who journeyed to Queens, NYC to find a wife. The neighborhood around the hotel matched the movie, with it being poor and a bit sketchy. We were warned by two different hotel employees to be careful, especially at night. We managed to go for a walk down 140th Street to the Rockaway Boulevard restaurant district. It was quite unpleasant so we turned around and ate at the hotel. We were surprised to see that it was a predominately East Indian neighborhood and the homes were actually well kept, although close together and protected with iron gates on windows and doors and fences. The streets in the Indian section were free of litter and pleasant, but Rockaway Boulevard was full of trash and dilapidated buildings. We didn’t see any white people on our 30-minute walk, a big change from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where 99% of people are white.The name Jamaica has nothing to do with the Caribbean Island nation, but is the early English colonists in the 1650s changing the Lenape indigenous name of “Jameca” or “Yameco” meaning beaver pond. Looking at the map I didn’t realize that Queens is actually on Long Island.
One of the zippers in a large front pocket of one of our suitcases broke. Thanks to being in the USA, Nadia ordered the delivery of kilt or sewing pins to temporarily repair it. You can get anything at anytime in America, the consumers paradise. Kilt pins are heavy duty safety pins and something I will add to my travel pack in the future as they are very handy. We had a nice dinner and watched a Netflix Documentary on the murders of four students from the University of Idaho in 2022. I got halfway through the second episode when I fell asleep.
I listened to a portion of one of my favorite podcasts, The David Frum Show “Making sense instead of making noise.” He was interviewing fellow Atlantic writer Jonathan Chait. Chait mentioned Presidents and politicians using humor was not in opposition to dignity and insight, but was a display of intelligence. He went on to say that humor is how humans adjust to discomfort and are able to discuss possibly taboo subjects. I use a lot of humor in my leadership and interactions with people. A day without laughter is not a good day.
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