The other day was framed by some odd logistics. I had an early lunch meeting on Broadway and 95th Street and a 5pm meeting on Broadway and 50th. In-between I stopped at the Apple store at Lincoln Center (I had planned to just check out the 11inch MacBook Air and, since it was on sale, I wound up buying one!). If you don’t know NYC, 95th to 50th is a long, long walk with plenty of subway options at 93rd, 72nd, etc. along the way.
Why did I walk? Good question. I’m not entirely sure. I had time to kill and I fell into the idea of treating my hometown like a foreign city and simply walking, walking, walking, observing people and places along the way. The long stretches of passing streets gave me plenty of time to simply think. It’s easy to forget that being alone with your thoughts can be an enlightening experience. I came up with a few ideas for the novel-in-progress, this blog post concept and a unique approach to a potential freelance gig.
After the 5pm meeting, my ponderings continued on the subway (it had begun to rain and I live downtown) as I observed the behavior of my fellow passengers on the crowded Q train. ‘Candy Crush’ and solitaire are very popular as is compulsive texting while listening to music and, although there was not enough room for me to even consider taking out my Kindle, a woman clinging to the central pole near the door managed to watch a movie on her tablet while rocking and knocking into other people.
Nearly everyone in the subway car was plugged into some kind of media. I used to check out what people were reading now I look to see what they are doing on their phones. That’s when I realized just how important my strange, long walk had been. I really was alone with my thoughts and I must take the time to do that more often!
