The people of New York City are often complacent in their day-to-day lives. Many people occupy their time with work or school; they busy themselves with their affairs, parsing each day with the same indifference they exhibit in their behavior. If one were to take a look at those who travel by mass transit, he or she might notice the sheer lack of regard for interaction and wholesomeness exhibited by patrons of the MTA. At least half of the patrons have some sort of device affixed to their ears to drown out the sounds of their fellow New Yorkers; others have a large paper to cover their face; and still others prefer to disengage the virtue of humanity with their cellphones or laptops. This pervasive attitude of most New Yorkers is one that may be characterized by the aphorism, “It’s a rat race.”
People rarely stop to genuinely converse with their fellow New Yorkers. They also do not appreciate the inherent beauty that the city has to offer. Sure, many people will purport that they do: they will say something like, “New York is the greatest city in the world;” but upon further inquiry, most people will fail to provide an coherent explanation of what makes New York so great.
Why is this relevant? People have a hard time slowing down in life. Whether by design or ignorance, New Yorkers fail to appreciate things that on their surface look inappreciable. This notion of intrinsic value in simple things made me ponder the question: Why don’t people look up at the sky at night?
So present is this reluctance for appreciation, that I have never actually seen someone look up at the stars in New York City. Granted, I’m sure some people do, but most, by my observation, do not. In my photograph, the stars did not show very well because the sky was overcast, but the fact of the matter is, even if it were crystal clear that night, people still would not be very interested in taking a break to appreciate the vastness of space.
Perhaps the sham and drudgery of the “rat race” is too much for some people to handle, and understandably so. However, there is no doubt that those who take time to appreciate the simple things in life, the things that are virtuous in and of themselves, will have a deeper understanding of humanity and intrinsic value moreover.
