Simple Together

Such a long, sleepy day, and I cannot believe the week is not yet over. The Great Tasks amass on my post-its and I ignore them, best I can. Say Yes, when asked to have a beer. On to the next and say Yes, when asked to have a glass of wine. How much easier to be incapacitated by intoxication than to accomplish. Manana, I will do it all, manana. (28 years later and I still believe myself when I say it.)

I waited at the platform longer than usual, rush hour regularity come and gone, and my eye caught something moving between the tracks. Such a sad rat, slowly slipping back and forth, he seemed unwell. I was mesmerized; this is all the wildlife we see in New York, after all, and it is dejected, too. Sad rat sat there dying, even as the train approached. The epitome of camouflage, he was as brown as the dusty ground, as gray as the steel rails and ancient garbage. Clearly better adapted than I. The train rolled over him, he did not flinch. New Yorkers, always unfazed, I thought, as I entered the train, won a seat, left the dreary station to its own fate.

But as I walked home down Bleecker street in the last trickles of dusk, remnants of a thunder storm dripping onto my hair, I felt like something had changed. Like maybe I can promise you more than another month's rent. Like maybe I am ready for commitment. Like maybe, New York, I am in this for the long haul. You be nice to me, then I'll be nice to you. I felt a root start slowly to sprout from my heart, it cracked the asphalt, nestled its way in to the warm, safe soil, from which all of New York City may grow. Me, included.