A few weeks ago - at a party of South African expats new and old, I once again answered explained how it feels to be living in New York. Really, I have a few ready answers for this question - I offer different variations to preserve my own sanity - but I have whittled it down to two or four key points which I keep at the ready.
a) I love music and the subway
b) I love the public spaces
c) I love the scale and the intensity
This time I carelessly threw in that I feel more human here (compared to in Cape Town that is). I don't think that last part was well received - at least not by the Capetonian at the table.
This place is big and it is dense. In Manhattan people are busy, they are always going somewhere - Every weekday over 2 million people ride the subway. Grown men and women in suits (or not in suits) run to the platform when they hear their train - sometimes with children in tow. They brush past each other, bump into each other, rebuke each other for being rude, try to sell each other stuff on the street. It is frenetic - in an ordered sort of way.
Through the chaos though, I have found that people share public spaces... They know that others use them, and they know that they are dependent on others for their use. People say "please", "thank you" and "you are welcome" - it is just done. People help strangers. When I once walked onto the bus just to realize that my mta card had no credit and that the machine only took coins, some stranger started shaking her bag to get me change for $3 in quarters. A few weeks ago when I asked a man whether he knew when the Columbia intercampus shuttle stops, he spent 15 minutes orienting me and directing me to the closest subway station. (I was not really lost, I just wanted to know whether I was late for the bus. He only spoke Spanish, and I only spoke English so I followed his directions because I did not want to seem difficult). At the park on the Hudson Riverbank today, a lady walked up to me to remark on how precious the little mini-beach is in the park. We made small talk for about 5 minutes and each moved on - we did not exchange names, I may forget that I even met her by tomorrow, but we spoke.
I love interacting with strangers - it gives the illusion (or reality) of community.
I have not experienced it in this way before.
I feel more human.
GIrl, this post touched me. So well described. I will havea good day today. I wish I was in NY!
ReplyDeleteI have read this post a few days later than I intended to.
ReplyDeleteIt perhaps summed up exactly why I constantly love being abroad. The sense of communal space and respect thereof. I often wonder if at any point in SA we will have that same respect for public spaces without it having to be policed by someone from Sechaba Security.
I love you, KMak.
I think we have to contend with the fact that many residential areas in SA were designed to de-humanize whereas spaces in NYC (for instance) were designed to do exactly the opposite. We have to work to reverse that legacy in public spaces and in people's minds.
ReplyDeleteLove you too Fadabing