THIS IS US
How Being Seen Can Change Your Whole Day
Don’t depend on the kindness of strangers, but do celebrate it
To paraphrase a great sage: The subway’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
Some days, what you get is human fecal matter underfoot. In case you’re wondering, that’s the best case scenario for encountering human fecal matter. It’s also possible to encounter it underhand, as my sixteen-year-old son discovered one afternoon during his commute home from school. Never since Lady Macbeth, or the year 2020, has someone washed their hands with such desperation.
Other days on the subway, what you get is tourists from Paris who let you speak terrible French to them and are surprisingly nice about it. Often, there are teenagers performing acrobatic feats which astound and alarm you because it seems like the margin for error is slim and your face is just so close. Sometimes what you get is rats. Sometimes what you get is puppies. People yelling. People begging. People who smell bad and those who…
