Since returning from Mysore/the mountains of California, my entrance strategy has been to stay as soft as possible. I think of drunk driving and how the driver doesn't often get badly injured because they are so relaxed, there is no resistance. That's me. Walking the path of least resistance down the streets of New York.
Its around 8am. I just taught my first class of the day, and am softly filing into a subway car. I feel a stead round of pointy jabs in my arm. I ask the stooped old man next me if that is really necessary, the elbowing me in the side. He tells me to "drop dead". I laugh out loud.
I am equal parts drowning and rising to the surface in a body of thick blue water.
A few days earlier, that same train was delayed. It stood in the station long enough for people to start making eye contact with each other. Some one did drop dead, sort of. They had an epileptic seizure on the platform. Were people running to help, to watch, or to find a different mode of transport to get to wherever they were going?
Hi Elise
ReplyDeleteThere's a certain type of aggression that must really belong to New Yorkers. I don't think you would get a similar comment to your question if you were riding a bus or subway in SF. It's great that you can laugh it off. The aggression is probably a product of overcrowding. I've seen throngs of people here coming from or going to Chinatown, usually in the middle of the day at grocery shopping time, - where regardless of how crowded a bus might be managage to get into it - and it usually involves some elbowing.
You think so? I feel like it was really crowded sometimes in India and people werent so nasty. Its like in NY people cant ever admit to themselves that it will ALWAYS be crowded and so we should try not to be miserable because it is not going to change.
ReplyDeleteBut sometimes, someone will smile at you and youre so shocked by it!