meditating on new york city

friday is my day for yoga.

while i walk to the gym nearly every morning (up west 4th street, across west 11th), today i noticed the following:

- dog poo (customary)
- 3 used condoms (not as customary)
- stomped-on cockroach
- vomit
- sleeping homeless man
- various pieces of food/litter disgarded on the sidewalk
- overflowing trashcans

as i sat in my yoga class i contemplated why it is that i love and live in
new york city.
there’s something about being a new yorker that presupposes a
skewed sense of reality.
one that accepts all the bad
in order to soak up all the good.

it’s all about perspective, which is what makes brands so interesting to me.
“new york city,” the brand, is something i full-heartedly buy into, cockroaches, condoms, vomit and all.

but at what point (if ever) does a new yorker become a former new yorker?
at what point do people stop buying the brand in favor of something sunnier, cleaner, prettier, easier?
at what point does that skewed reality come into focus?

if it ever happens to me, i think i’ll blame it on advertising.

om.

(marissa)