7 Good Things About Binghamton

It is snowing, and you all know how I love snow, and is bitterly cold, and so to cheer myself up I thought I'd spare no effort to enumerate seven good things about this windswept wasteland. The Internet loves lists, as indeed do I. We expect that lists of information and tasks will change our lives, so here goes.

Seven Pretty Good Things About Binghamton

One-The People

Every time I mentally pack up the house and move to Brazil (or Mexico or Jamaica or anywhere really) I stop and consider all the people I would leave here. Binghamton has some great people. Not only are there the people that I actually know and have come to be friends with, but there are the people in the line at Walmart who, when you've been standing there for an eternity, nod and smile and commiserate about how long the line is. There are the people piled up in the milk aisle at Wegmens who are uniformly patient and smiling. There's the lady at the post office, even though I never go there, who is brisk and cheerful. There are lots and lots of nice people here. Plus the ones I actually know are top notch.

Two-Aldi

Binghamton has three Aldi's which, for a long time, I did not really know or understand. I just went to Wegmans every week and that was that. But then one day, probably because of baseball and having my whole life discombobulated, I walked into an Aldi and discovered the miracle there in. What is that miracle, you ask? There's really nice stuff, like food and chocolate, and it's all really cheep. For instance, goat cheese has become a staple for me, along with three bars of chocolate for Matt, and two of those big pizzas for the children. I really love those pizzas, even though I shouldn't eat them. And occassionaly, they have roses, for like three dollars, that last and last. Aldi is a good reason to live in Binghamton.

Three-Wegmans

And of course, there is Wegmans. Wegmans is like a shiny beautiful gem that you can occassionally take out and examine and enjoy before putting it away again for another few weeks. If you get a lot of your food at Aldi, I'm assuming, of course, that you have six children and expensive tastes, you can afford occassionaly to go wander around Wegmans with a coffee while your children play in the Play Place and you can purchase a few things here and there, like good tea, and coffee, and bagels, and bulk spices. You push the little cart around and enjoy yourself. It's like a mini holiday, Binghamton's version of Disney Land.

Four-The Dentist and the Doctor

All the time I am reading about terrible things happening to people's health with the health care system, or of people who have to struggle very hard to get the proper care they need. Admittedly, because I know that everything on the Internet is true, my sense is that the entire western world is perishing for lack of a good doctor, But Not in Binghamton! We have a fine sensible pediatrician and a dentist who is marvelously resembling of our Lord in her capacity to heal and build up, rather than to hurt and to destroy. The dentist, the pediatrician, the OB, each, in their own way, have made life in Binghamton a real pleasure.

Five-The Odd Corners

If you can get off the beaten path, which isn't hard because there really isn't one, and go wandering around town at other people's recommendation and knowledge, you can find interesting and bright corners. This week I was led to a dog groomer, in a big rambling house, who surrounds herself with many many dogs, and who is a real charmer. She, like most all of us who live here, isn't upscale. If you want everything in your life to resemble the lady from the progressive commercial, Binghamton probably isn't for you, but, if you are a cluttery comfortable good natured person with a task you love this is a good town to live in.

Six-The Poverty

I'm pretty sure no one ever wants to be poor, except the very holy, like Jesus. As my father always says, “It's better to be Rich and Healthy than to be Poor and Sick.” Certainly, when I wake up every morning, I never ask myself how I can become poorer. But I've come, slowly, to appreciate the poverty of Binghamton. This is an aging rust belt town that at one time experienced some kind of hey day, or glory. But that is long gone and now there are many rambling blocks of empty manufacturing complexes, there are many many people who don't have gainful employment and who depend on the state to sustain them, there are many many forlorn and crumbling houses, many people who are struggling desperately to keep body and soul together. And over time, the shadowy grayness has slowly made its impression on me. I've come to relish the back corners and decay. When we first moved here we picked out a fancy shiny vet, as with everything, we were looking for upscale, nice professional in all the things we wanted to buy or people we wanted to engage with. Everyone with the great teeth and the pleasant voice. So this December, when I found myself sitting in a dimly lit beige vet's office, chatting merrily with two well tattooed ladies about what a pain Christmas is, and found that I was pretty comfortable and happy, that there was no awkwardness on my part, that I felt, strangely, at home, I was surprised. Indeed, when I came home to relate my time to Matt, my chief happiness of the place was how poor it was. For one thing, I knew they weren't trying to scam me. For another, I've just become more comfortable with the general poverty. It's where we live. It's who Binghamton is. This might be discouraging to the person who wants to have a nice shiny life, but I don't see any reason any more to run away from it. If ever there was a place for Jesus, it is here.

Seven-Good Shepherd

The seventh really good reason to live in Bingshmton is Good Shepherd. Of course I'm biased. There are lots of good churches in this town, and many excellent and faithful pastors. In fact, the Christian community in Binghamton is rich and deep. But Good Shepherd is, of course, my favorite. This is the church that TEC in Central New York was always trying to close, the church that didn't really feel like the regular Episcopal church with the money and the pretty. It embodied Binghamton itself, poorer, clutterier, the truest Odd Corner in this whole place. Many fancy people probably passed it by over the years. But God never has. We are a little shinier and sparklier than before, what with our new fancy classrooms and our enormous parking lot and our sign that lights up, if we can beat our way back into it to change it away from Christmas. Maybe if you come in you will feel like it's a real grown up church with real stuff. But then you can come down to coffee hour and discover that it is true Binghamton. And it is a good reason to live here.

So, I hope I have convinced you all to move here post haste, or at least visit after the snow, and that you'll all have a pretty pleasant weekend. Maybe treat yourself to a trip to Wegmans. And go read the quick takes at This Ain't the Lyceum. I'm sure if you google just that you'll find it no problem.