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Upon arrival I prepared to load the bus, when a stranger handed me his pass and said “it’s good for the whole day, I don’t need it anymore.” I felt the change, or maybe I just focused on that change. It was there, hidden in all of the usual distractions of strangers handing you advertisements, horns honking, watch dealers hawking, and the same people saying “the end is near,” just as they were doing 10 years ago. Every cop was polite with no matter how dumb or repetitive the question, and I was never afraid for my own safety. I was able to look at others in the eye with a nod of acknowledgement by the other person.
Did this change because of Sept. 11th, I can’t compare. But I know for me I looked at this city in a different light. I looked upon the city with compassion, and doing so I experienced a city in a way I had not seen one before. I witnessed a man on his knee proposing marriage to his girlfriend in Central Park, and I saw a class of students huddled and crying down near Ground Zero. A lady handed me a Peppermint Patty, from the glut of donations they had received, and I like many others crowded around a vendor selling, I (heart) NY shirts, on the streets. This was a new city, a New York City.__ <Back
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