1 February 2009
ON THE OTHER SIDE
Sometimes you don’t expect the quiet. On Bedford Ave. At 11am.
It’s hard to explain but there’s a difference in the way a car drives down the street in the winter than in the other seasons. I’m not sure what it is. The pitch is higher, the sound of the tires rolling down the street more crisp, and there’s a quiet solitude towards it.
No one is out yet on a Sunday morning at 11am. It’s too cold yet.
The sound reminds me of home — where I want to think things are simpler, easier, slower. But really there’s no difference between here and there. People can find themselves stagnant, stubborn and selfish there just as anywhere else. People can find themselves just as difficult, or fun, or full of zest.
You keep thinking there’s always something better out there. When I lived in my hometown it was here.
Now that I live here I want to point my finger elsewhere. Another neighborhood, another subway stop, another borough, another state, another coast. Something better is only found within. And that’s the most frightening part. Changing requires taking a hard, honest and critical look. Not with the aim of self pity, nor self destruction, but with self-improvement.
So, as another set of tires comes rolling down the street, I take a deep breath and realize that I’ve already arrived. Now it’s time to make my move.
dude totally. People our age tend to have nomad syndrome.. moving every few years, thinking that will be the answer. Sometimes it is perhaps, but methinks not.
2 February 2009: 3:57 pm
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