June 2022
Salute!
It's barely past rush hour as I head southbound on the crosstown…
I'm on my way towards Prospect Park, and my company's annual day of service, when the undeniable hits me.
In front of me, a woman wears a black and white striped mask.
Directly behind her, leaning against the door, a guy wears a T-shirt made of the same pattern. They got on at different stops, don't know each other and yet somehow couldn't have planned this spontaneous moment better. I smile and comment on the coincidence, saying something along the lines of
"Oh, so you both got the Memo."
We joke a little and I get off the train, smiling as I go.
That's what I love about this city - the moments you simply can't plan for.
Last Friday, after performing with Mabou Mines in the East Village, I'm making my way down to the South Street Seaport for a friend's birthday party. I'd seen Alexa the weekend before - enjoying a great meal, conversation and an "Aperol Spritz" (a drink I'd never heard of, but one she regales me with stories about).
On the subway platform I see this young girl, all dressed up for a night out, struggling to open up a bottle on a straight surface. I ask if she needs a hand and, with a can opener, help her pop the top. She thanks me and asks if I want one. Normally I wouldn't, but when I see what she's offering - an Aperol Sprtiz - it's an offer I can't refuse. I accept her gift and walk away, realizing an even bigger surprise moments later: Alexa's party's the next night!
The beauty of city culture is that anything can happen anywhere. On the way back from seeing "The Wild One," a documentary about my late teacher Jack Garfein, I decide to stop off in Long Island City. As I'm seated outside "The Baroness," a man walks by with a "Fat Ham" playbill. He kind of looks like a commercial teacher I've studied with, so I call out "David!" He doesn't hear me and keeps on walking. I keep wondering if it's him and then just send a text.
It's totally him and we briefly connect as I finish lunch. Cheers to another moment that could have easily been missed if my attention was elsewhere. When it's time to wash up, I head downstairs to find yet another bonus surprise, which cracks me up that someone would do such a thing.
I can't tell you how many times I've had similar encounters in the city.
Random experiences with sometimes not-so-random people. For those strangers - it's nice to find common ground, for those friends - it's nice to reconnect, for those random experiences - it's nice to see something totally, and pleasantly unexpected.
I don't know if there's some universal guidance or deeper meaning in coming across randomly matching couture-ers, Aperol Spritzers, or Titanic Toilet Shrines, but I'll lean into one often told adage, expressed these three ways:
Stop and smell the roses,
Grab hold of the tree of life &
Enjoy the journey -
sometimes that's all the moment asks of you.
As the tagline in the "Naked City" goes...
"There are 8 million stories in this 'Naked City' and this has been one of them"
What's one of yours?