“The Great Experiment”
Nov 05, 2019Three hundred sixty five and one quarter days around the sun since arriving in NYC. Feels like a lifetime ago. Fitting that I just finished a fourteen hour workday in New Jersey, running on two hours of sleep. The weather is getting colder. Snow soon. Just what I need to warm my heart. This overpriced Jameson will do for now.
The city she has treated me in unexpected ways, which seems like the way it would have been. She’s given me tough and brutal in a very different way. Instead of letting me drown in my comfortable misery, she has dragged me out of the gutter and stood me on my feet. Every time I want to lie back down, she holds me up and smacks me in my face.
“But, New York, I just want to fit in!”
“Fuck that, you’re better than that!”
“No I’m not! It’s why I came here.”
“You came here for reality and honesty. So that’s what I’m fucking giving you!”
“I don’t want it. I want my dreams back.”
“You can’t have your dreams when you’re living them! Your romantic dreams are now your miserable reality!”
“I don’t like it.”
“Tough luck. You don’t have to like it, you just have to love it.”
Well, I don’t know if or how much I love it yet or where we’re going with this adventure. The only thing I can expect is to not know what to expect as our miserable planet begins its next revolution around the sun. On my two year anniversary here, the U.S. will be electing its next president. This will be make or break for this country and, really, for this world. What path are we going to head down as a species? Maybe New York holds the answers for all of us. I wish she would smack some sense into everyone. We all need a dose of reality, exposure to the cruel realities of our society. The great experiment continues whether we want it or not. May the cold winter warm all of our hearts.