picking up the pieces

something really cool happened last friday night as i was headed home for the weekend, and i thought it was such a nice way to enter a few days off that i waited all week to share it with you, my wonderful readers.

there was a lot of activity in the crosswalk right outside grand central station - not unusual, but just enough of a flurry to catch my attention. and what i saw made me feel warm all over. a bike messenger had been knocked over and lost hold of his bag, which was apparently full of thousands of pieces of paper, and they were blowing all over the place - some were already several blocks away. my heart immediately sunk, realizing there was no way he'd recover them all. i wanted to cry for him. and for everyone and everything, because it was that kind of mood i was in, as you might remember.

but there in the crosswalk in midtown manhattan in rush hour on a friday night, a dozen passersby were running around picking up the pieces. literally.

and it hit me like a ton of bricks - unsink your heart and get moving. i joined the passersby, and i picked up the pieces i could catch up to, and the messenger's face as each person handed him the windblown, crumpled slips of paper spoke volumes.

some people would say "only in new york," but i disagree - i think people everywhere are good and kind and giving. now the bike messenger being knocked over by a rushing pedestrian? THAT might be only in new york

we're all in this together.