My Favorite Place in Boston...

I've been all over this city, and I still have so much more to see. I've eaten at some of the greatest restaurants, I've had my share of cocktails at some of the funnest bars, and over my lifetime, I've seen almost all the museums and landmarks of this city. But my absolute favorite part of Boston has nothing to do with it's amazing nightlife, fine cuisine, or historic qualities. My favorite part of Boston is just one of the many quirks in this quaint little town, just another example of how surprising secrets await in every nook and cranny.


Tucked away along the winding roads of Downtown Boston, the granite edifice of 45 School Street whispers secrets of its days as the City Courthouse and Town Hall in the 19th Century. It's massive wooden doors overlook a tiny, fenced-in courtyard where glistening statues of such inspiration figures as Benjamin Franklin and Josiah Quincy stand proud, boasting Boston's influential past. But the building is not at all what I'm interested in. Hidden away in a corner of the Old City Hall's courtyard, something else caught my eye. A small, bronze donkey. Given Massachusetts’s liberal history, this didn't surprise me. I liked it, though, and I found myself drawn closer to explore further. There, in front of the statue, two bronze footprints are imprinted in the ground, facing the donkey. Within those footprints, two elephants are carved. And below them, this phrase is written: "Stand in opposition."

I love it.


It's just one of those things. It's fun. It's interesting. And it's one of Boston's secrets that I'm so happy I stumbled upon.


A little history on elephants & donkeys (FYI):

The donkey came to be the Democratic Party's symbol in 1828, when Andrew Jackson ran for president with the slogan, "Let the people rule." His opponents thought him to be ridiculous and called him a "jackass." Rather than crumble into defeat, Jackson embraced his nickname and used it to his advantage by printing a donkey on his campaign posters. As the years passed, the donkey became the accepted symbol of the Democratic Party and was embraced by all of Boston's Democratic mayors.

The elephant originated in the artwork of Harper's Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast on November 7, 1874. The New York Herald that year inspired fear into the nation by crying "Caesarism" in relation to a third presidential term of Ulysses S. Grant, and at the same time conducted a hoax, now known as the Central Park Menagerie Scare, by publishing a fictional story claiming the animals of the zoo had escaped and were roaming free in Central Park in search of prey. Nast, amused by the Herald's antics, created a cartoon depicting an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion's skin (the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park), including an elephant (the Republican vote - not necessarily the party itself). The caption quoted a familiar fable: "An ass having put on a lion's skin roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings." After the election, when the Republicans did so poorly, Nast created a cartoon showing the elephant in a trap, illustrating the way the Republican vote had been lured away from its normal allegiance.

The Alchemist

Some words of wisdom from my all-time favorite and inspirational book, The Alchemist:

* To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation
* No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the word. And normally he doesn't know it.
* When you are loved, you can do anything in creation
* The world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse
* When we love, we always strive to become better than we are
* Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.
* People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them
* The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself
* Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him
* When you are in love, things make even more sense
* Making a decision is only the beginning of things.
* If you can concentrate always on the present... Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.
* It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting
* The world was huge and inexhaustible
* It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary
* Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.
* It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.
* When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it
* I'm like everyone else - I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does...
* This isn't a strange place; it is a new one.
* He was learning a lot of new things. Some of them were things that he had already experienced, and weren't really new, but that he had never perceived before.
* I'm afraid that if my dream is realized, I'll have no reason to go on living.
* Every blessing ignored becomes a curse
* It's easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it's in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment
* He tried to deal with the concept of love as distinct from possession, and couldn't separate them
* When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream
* It's no what enters men's mouths that's evil. It's what comes out of their mouths that is.
* Love never keeps a man from pursuing his dreams
* One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.
* Men dream more about coming home than about leaving
* There is only one way to learn. It's through action
* It is said that "the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn."
* When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed
* "Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time."