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"Last night I hopped on the local Broadway train, right around midnight, and found myself in a car with two men. One of them seated at one end of the car listening to his iPod, the other stretched out and asleep on the seats at the at the opposite end. I sat somewhere inbetween and did a quick sketch of the of the sleeping man before arriving at the 96 street stop. Tonight found me again on the subway, the express line, around 12:00am. As the train pulled away from Penn station, a man's arm, with a flute held together by a rubberband, clenched in it's fist, kept the door across from me from closing. The door opened and the arm's owner entered through it, placed his bag on the floor, assumed the position and began to play. I put my book down and listened, for the player was the same man I had sketched the night before. He continued to play, constantly readjusting his stance in time with the lurching of the train, concluding with a lengthy trill and the declaration of, "a little midnight Mozart."
Also yesterday-11:00am saw my heading downtown to Chris' studio to work. I sat squished, and attempting to read between a squatty Hispanic man to my left and a very tall, silent, black man to my right. Now, I do not know how Meg Ryan manages to make reading on the subway look attractive, but she does.....and it is not! I glanced over to see what my right-hand-side seat partner was reading and was suprised to see, hand-written, the first three verses of the book of Acts. It took me two full stops to summon the courage to simply ask the man what he was studying for, because, I mentioned, that I had just taken a class on Acts. Christopher, is his name, was memorizing scripture as an act of personal meditation. Originally from out of state, his parents both Christians, he has lived in New York for 22 years but had struggled through many other religions before coming back to God. We spoke of Acts, of Ananias, New York subways and the personal distancing therein, and I shook his hand. We parted ways with his stating his appreciation of such an unusual meeting and hopes for another unusual happening of our meeting again."
I am so interested in the people of New York...if indeed there are a "people." It seemes that everyone here is from somewhere else-welcome to America.
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