The nature of the ‘Manhattan way of life’ provides an excellent field to express the key word that is implicitely said in your blog, CURIOSITY. We have almost everything here. And perhaps this individual search for that other identity that can give us something different is part of this ‘fast arrival’ to the destination. We meet a lot of people from many cultures, with many opinions and full of many idiosyncrasies that makes it for most of us interesting to explore (another key word). And this ‘expedition’ towards the unknown is the result of a collection of new experiencies that we search in a fast way because it seems that we are missing the ‘opportunity.’ It is like we have ’so many’ places to go, ’so many’ restaurants to eat, ’so many’ events to attend than many times we have problems, as you say, with indigestion. The clear analogy with the speed of a car is very explicit. For many of us we like to drive very fast and feel the stimuli of velocity. It is brave, vibrant and exhuberant but we barely realize about the landscape. We don’t have time to look around. To see the trees, the birds or simply to contemplate beauty wherever we want to see it. We are missing a lot because the excitement of velocity is higher than the visual and emotional journey.

I agree with you, Joelle, that in New York is a matter of a collection of stops. It reminds me the beautiful mockingbird when it sucks the nectar of every exotic and juicy flower. But at the end, we need the time to cultivate a relationship not so much because we have had a fantastic click but because this click has a meaning. A meaning that progresses in time and that provides us with new excitments and challenges. The result is a strong bond and foundation with a friend or a collection of friends that has developed a special significance for one’s life. I belong to the school of Kavafis’ ‘Itaca’ way of thinking. And in spite of the strong New York flow of energy going towards the ‘fast’ direction, I still believe that there is ‘another way.’ Perhaps mine, or anybody’s that simply wishes to give a different type of sense in one’s life and move away from superficiality taking advantage of the recycable options that a New York life provides.

Don’t forget that famous sentence: “Only dead fish go with the flow”…this is part of the beauty of life !!!

Un beso
Jordi