We’re all here.  Think of any trait that would describe a person, and it’s alive and well at the US Open.  The veteran of forty Opens, armed to the teeth with tennis statistics and history, looks across the stadium at a 10-year-old kid who’s dreaming of meeting her hero and someday playing on Arthur Ashe.

The US Open is played in New York City’s borough of Queens.  Here’s what Google has to say about the place:

Queens holds the Guinness World Record for “most ethnically diverse urban area on the planet”, and it’s also the most linguistically diverse, with at least 138 languages spoken throughout the borough.

Clothing, personality, sexual orientation, race … we’re one huge diverse family on the grounds of the Billie Jean King Tennis Center.  I love moving through the crowds, seeing parents and kids hugging each other, couples holding hands, and a fellow off by himself, apparently meditating.

I love being welcomed to the Open in the morning by smiling employees and being asked to “travel safe” by the Louis Armstrong Stadium usher as I begin my journey to the subway at night.

I love eating my eggplant sandwich at a shaded picnic table and welcoming Toby, who needs a place to sit.  We talk about … tennis!  Imagine that.  He knows more than I do on the subject.  Good for him.  I offer him a free ticket for Friday, September 10 but sadly he says no.  He has to be back to work in Vermont.  I’ll find some other nice person.  My friend Carolyne is joining me on Friday so I needed to find two seats together.

Life is good.