4/7/14
New York, 4/2 - 4/6
"A fool is only a fool until he realizes what he is."
Apparently, i have yet to fully engage my "blank slate" approach to life. I subjectively assumed N.Y. would be hectic and noisy, the people too rushed to indulge someone without a voice. I expected to be pushed to the side and ignored by its busy populace. I have been to New York many times before i became silent, and these hastily drawn assumptions were based on those previous experiences.
Manhattan is indeed busy, and its mechanizations grind and howl almost nonstop. But there were palpable lulls in the buzz saw hum, that were so much more prominent because of it.
Almost every person i came into contact with was helpful, friendly and consciously chose to join me in silence, for however brief an instant. From the subdued cab driver who insisted on shaking my hand as i departed his vehicle, to the sales person at the MOMA gift shop who quietly walked away from the busy checkout throng to personally find a print of one of Picasso's Masterpieces for me. These, and many other kindnesses, were almost always performed in reciprocal, smiling, silence.
Without my braying voice and tangled, clamorous preconceptions, New York became a wonderful and "peaceful" place. Noise perpetuates noise, and silence perpetuates silence.
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