Beginning the Journey

I knew it was a good idea to come home again.

Thomas Wolfe said it couldn’t be done – but he’s been proven wrong with that phrase so many times it can’t be counted – and it was proven wrong once again yesterday when I returned to the Louis Armstrong House Museum.

The Armstrong House had been my place of employment (okay, volunteering) for over three years. Yes, that tenure makes it sound more like Tom Bergeron on Hollywood Squares than Bob Barker on The Price is Right, but it was a good three years spent there, I enjoyed working there, they enjoyed having me work there, and when this May came around, we went our separate ways.

I finally came back yesterday, and was greeted with an interesting – and quite unexpected – welcome-home present.

“By the power temporarily granted to me and this work of art, I award you this key.”

And with that, I had been given a Key to the City. Well, not a classic oversized Key to the City usually given out, but a key that was part of a larger art and culture project in New York’s Five Boroughs. The Commons at Times Square where these keys had been given out have been closed for weeks by now, but Deslyn, my old boss, had some left for staff (considering they were one of the sites), and gave one to me with the sort of pomp and fanfare you see in this video…

The journey continued a few feet away inside the Louis Armstrong House Museum, which you can read about here.