Tonight I figured let me try something different. I am about
7 beers in, and feeling pretty bold. At 8:00 I decided to head downstairs, to
conduct a test. The results of the test are as I expected, though most New Yorkers
would probably deny the truth.
I sat on 25th and 8th,
while sitting there I wore the biggest grin possible. The first thing that is
clear is I have nothing better to do with my time. The second thing that became
clear is people are very guarded in this city.
I sat on the metal fence for an hour, and literally smiled at
everyone who passed. In that hour a total of 241 people passed by me. I did my best to reveal the happiest, most delightful grin, that I could. I
created two columns: people who made eye contact, vs people who made no eye
contact at all. Then I broke down people who made eye contact into three categories:
Smiled back, Ignored completely, and Got Angry. The results of the response to
my smile are as follows:
Out of 241 people,
43 made no eye contact at all
7 got mad that I was smiling (ie: called me a fago**/ cursed
at me)
39 returned my smile with a smile of their own
And
152 made eye contact, but acted as though I don`t exist/
ignored me
Well there you have it! Who knows what this means, and who really cares. I for one think the entire test was quite fun, and don`t care that others find it hard to just smile back. Keep smiling New York
It IS hard to smile back… sometimes.
ReplyDeleteLast week at 6:30 a.m. I walked into the Kinko’s on 7th and 24th to make copies and an employee there, an open-souled fellow, greeted me with a huge smile as I entered. The unexpected beauty took my breath away. In fact it turned me inside out and I had to self-protect my exposed innards that had all turned suddenly rose-like and vulnerable. It was tooooo much. I turned away and pretended to be a guy making copies while I put myself back together as best I could.
Same thing again as I was entering Sullivan Bakery on 9th and 24th a few days ago. I opened the door to enter and a woman who was leaving out gave me the most wonderful demur smile that also stole my composure and left the soul of me a crumpled mess on the pavement as the empty shell went in and pretended to be a regular guy ordering a regular coffee.
Smiles wreak havoc when one isn’t ready for them. But I am learning how to be a better person from the smilers. Smiles are miraculous, have miraculous powers.
And I have seen you on the fence on 25th and 8th and consider your gorgeous smile one of the bravest notions I’ve encountered in decades. I am always hoping to see you there because your smile makes it safer for me to be publicly happy. In fact, when you are not there, the world feels dimmer to me, and I am duller, and disappointed.
In short, your smile count does not take into account the real effect of that smile. You only see the immediate survivalist reaction, which is sometimes just avoidance.
And fuck’n hurray for the 39!!! I wouldn’t have guessed so many. But maybe you are training us all to be better, to take more risks, to be more present, to give something so good out like you do, free and gratis.
The truth is that I am hopelessly in love with the fellow at Kinkos, the woman at Sullivans, and with you. And how would you ever know that effect. I hope you know now. You are out there changing the world, forcing us all toward a necessary evolution of the human heart.