Sitting Silently
Yet another hot summer day in NYC. I sought shade. It was found in Ten Eych Park/Playground. I sat in the place for about an hour while I waited for M. I listened, albeit through my noiseless, noise-cancelling earbuds, to the children playing, the friends setting up nearby picnic tables for a cookout, and the men playing handball. It is not a large park, thus bringing people closer. Two little boys had water guns they were extremely pleased to use. Another little girl rode by on her scooter and was threatened by a water blast. She was so pertubed by the gesture it made me laugh. Thankfully, the boy checked himself and realized she was not going to be a fun target. He turned back to his younger brother, who wore the same outfit (super cute).
When I walked to a bench I found under a tree, I crossed over a portion of the playground, which was laid with a squishy foam-like material. If the entire City had such flooring, my plantar fasciitis would be a freakin goner. I think it is a pour-in-place rubber material.
I sat on my bench and let the breeze sweep by me. I woke up very tired today. This felt like a nap. I looked up to the tree hovering above, its leaves skipping about, and thought how this was precisely the feeling Hirayama had in Perfect Days during his lunch breaks. My twelve o'clock view:
I was stirred by a man who came over to ask if I had left a pair of keys on the nearby bench. He proceeded to ask everyone in the park if they had misplaced them. I do not think he was able to reunite the keys with their rightful owner, but there was something very human about it all. A type of human behavior I don't believe I've seen in some time. A type of human exposure that appears only if you sit still & silently and watch for. Otherwise, it'll just pass you by.
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