Rush through mingling throngs, swiftly through the riot of the crowd, like fleet-footed Peter-Pan dashing through the energetic strangers, slip through them, dive into the mass of people and physically encounter anonymity. Escape in between unknown smiles, unfamiliar laughter, into the thick of unjustified merriment. Relish the sensation of community, of being commonly unrelated, of being connected with unfamiliar company. The moment you laugh together with someone, is when someone becomes less of a stranger and more of a friend.
Resign to the urban rhythm, the symphony of train schedules and trundling traffic. Take off the mask of day-to-day drudgery and find below the steel surface, the beating heart of the city. Conventions and ethics, traditions and responsibilities, are all held up by warm-bodied people, who beat, who hurt, who trudge-on, who are also capable of being amazing when given the chance, when you look through the surface, when you let your head slip beneath the waves, and let yourself be carried off in peace, held-up by your neighbors, your office-mates your church-friends, the guys you see every Friday night. They're there with you, holding you up, against the ebb, against the flow, against the capricious tide, their hands will buoy you up just when you wish to breathe in a little more of life.
In the city, as in life, the streets are meant to be passed, they are transitional, the coincidental, they are there only to connect two points together, the road from office to home, the avenue from the grocery to the parking lot, the worn path from the park to the ice-cream shop, from where we are to where we want to go, and it's easy to shut the world out as we travel along.
Don't.
The joy of getting lost is seeing how far you can let yourself go, and even if you never find the way back, finding-out you're still entirely yourself. And wherever that could be, you'll be alright.
Photo credit: Subway Crowd by iheartartichokes
BGM: We Found Love - Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris (Boyce Avenue piano acoustic cover)
