Field Library 125th Anniversary - When Worlds Collide. In honor of the Field Library's Big Birthday, I purposely chose a book title for today's blog. I read When Worlds Collide in eighth grade, and it scared me half to death
.I lead a double life, inhabiting two Worlds. My Clark Kent persona is my acupuncturist self, this month celebrating five years in practice. This is the serious, studious me who helps people deal with health challenges. Yet I'm forever leaping into the nearest phone booth and emerging as The Magician, happily entrenched in Peekskill's wacky, wild, wonderful Artist community.
Whatever World you're in, you get the same advice: "Don't tell people you do anything else; they won't take you seriously." They could have added, "especially of you're a magician." For the first few years in my acupuncture practice, I tried so hard to maintain my separate Identities, but it was really tough. People Google you, and you run into them in while in your other Identity at unexpected times, which can be extremely awkward.
When I moved to Peekskill, I just gave up. My acupuncture office adjoins my magic studio, which you must pass through to get to my treatment room. Clients just have to be OK with it. While I inhabit my two Worlds on a daily basis, and while Peekskill's business and artist communities are friendly and supportive of each other, their worlds exist separately.
Not so last Sunday, at the Field Library's 125th Anniversary celebration. Library director Sibyl Canaan and her staff put together a magnificent event which brought my Worlds together in spectacular fashion. It was the blow-out Field Library birthday party - yes - but it was also a beautiful blending of Peekskill's artist and business communities. And it was a celebration of Peekskill's history; nine historic family businesses of Peekskill were honored.
We were blessed with a gorgeous, clear late-summer day, and the grounds and view at Monteverde were breathtaking. The works of over 20 Peekskill Artists were displayed on the lawn - paintings, sculptures and mixed-media works. Nearly 20 more Peekskill Performing Artists also participated with live music, performance art, poetry readings and, of course, magic! Black berets were distributed to the artists, and it was lovely throughout the afternoon to see them sprinkled like peppercorns throughout the crowd.
Two groups I belong to, HVGCC and Peekskill Rotary , were heavily represented. I can't recall any event where I already knew such a large percentage of the attendees. People sipped wine and munched on fabulous hors d’oeuvres and basked in a lovely Peekskill glow. Often, when I finished a magic effect, someone would say, "You know, she's also an acupuncturist."
Thanks, Sibyl (and staff) for a wonderful party. Here's to the next 125 years!
