… About those subway rides and my wandering soul, as mentioned in Part 1…
… you see… a city has a singular heartbeat… and it’s supported by the rhythm of its people… in this case… a MASSIVE amount of people concentrated into one small area. You are confronted with it as soon as you open your door, this mass of humanity… walking, dreaming, scheming, working, loving, hating, laughing, crying and living.
You can either embrace it… or you can shrink from it.
And I embraced the hell out of it.
In LA… we tend to live in “moments”, in what I call “pods” of time. What I mean is that we are home (a pod), we get into our cars (pod), which take us to our favorite places (comfortable pod), where we see our favorite people (familiar pod)… and then we return home. What we miss along the way is the rest of humanity… outside of our singular lives… unless we make a concerted effort to exit our everyday norm.
A city like New York refuses to allow you that level of comfort.
Because you are smacked with a throng of human beings the second your feet hit the street.
… and isn’t that inspiring?
I couldn’t WAIT to wander. To see what was down the next alley, behind the next building, to wonder what each and every person I encountered was up to each day…
… like all of those faces on the subway, the financiers down Wall Street, the construction workers I’d see at 7am on my way to my favorite coffee shop (note: walking to your favorite coffee shop vs. getting in your car, driving in traffic to said coffee shop, circling for 20 minutes looking for a parking spot at said coffee shop, parking then waiting in line for 15 minutes = NY for the WIN).
… and you know what? There were people interested in me (and my family). What boots are you wearing? How old are your kids? Wow… you wear that hat like a BOSS (heard that twice on the subway)!
I’m not sure if it was the forced proximity of our physical beings that allowed for a more immediate intimate interaction (vs. “pod life” mentioned above), but I found it refreshing. You have to be OPEN to the communication… (you could, of course, bury your head in your phone)… but at least the OPTION is there… to lend a hand, to smile, to throw a kind word someone’s way.
Many mornings I’d hit the streets alone.
… but I made sure to take my kiddos on plenty of “mommy” walks while the hubs was working…
to jump in puddles…
… to stare at grand old buildings…
… to window shop…
… to pose (and to learn)…
… and of course to eat croissants and drink hot chocolate…
… all the while interacting with just a fraction of this great big world (and the people that live in it).
I was going to write about small-space living in this post… but well… I rambled, and I ran out of space! Tune in to Part 3 to find out why I returned from NY and purged forty percent of my household!
View Next in Series: Deesign Does New York… Family Relocation Adventure Part 3
