Thursday 5/15: Brunch with a View

Today our schedule is a little more relaxed which affords me the opportunity to people watch-- a favorite City past time. For a young woman of rural lineage there is always something to watch, to see. Tartine, a French cafe on West 4th Street and West 11th Avenue is my observation tower today. I'm amazed at how much there is to see on a Thursday mid morning. This is not a busy corner by New York City standards, but it sees more traffic than any of the places I've lived. While enjoying my croissant with raspberry jam and latte, I've probably seen about a hundred individuals... grown men on scooters, old women hailing cabs, the NYC fashionista strutting down the sidewalk as if it were a runway, a NYC transplant with her visiting parents, bicyclists, power couples, the artist, dogs of every shape and size with their owners, and more nannies with strollers than I can count. There is some beauty in it all, a timelessness. I can't help but feel like something is missing. I wonder if anyone is seeing what I do. Everyone is moving so fast passing one another and avoiding eye contact. What can a culture such as this create. We are all parts of a whole, but without interaction does that mean we are incomplete. At this moment I want so to record my vision of humanity, but I have forgotten my camera. I guess my words must be sufficient.

Just watching the world, Margaret.