when life hands new york a lemon...

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The following story about the transit strike from today's New York Times starts like a bad joke: The BMW in Brooklyn held an office temp, a lawyer and a technology worker. Then there was the minivan: in it were a doorman, a dental office worker and a man with his son.

Yesterday was a day many New Yorkers will long recall, a day when many put aside their fear and loathing of the stranger, a day when doctors, dancers and designers traded in the normal anonymity of subway trains for the intimacy of an unfamiliar car. It was also a day of creative transportation, when scooters scooted and bicyclists biked. For some, there were corporate chartered buses. For the well-shod, sneakers were a mainstay of the commute.

Throughout the city, strangers crammed into sedans and minivans. Rides were offered from rolled-down windows. Makeshift hitchhiking posts sprung up along the curb. On the Manhattan side, pedestrians were met by Red Cross workers and volunteers offering snacks and coffee. "Congratulations, guys, you made it! Have some coffee or hot chocolate. You need the energy for the rest of your trip."

"It's kind of nice what happens to people when there's a crisis in this city," said Heidi Mortensen, the lawyer who had picked up people in her BMW. "Somehow, they're just nicer to one another than they're used to being. I didn't even worry when I stopped to give these people a ride and I took the first person I asked, the first guy I saw walking down the street. I really believe that when you're nice to people, they're going to be nice to you back."

the ability of new yorkers to take anything and everything in stride is inspiring... there really is something to be said about a city and a community that, despite whatever catastrophe or inconvenience that politics or nature has put upon them, will still brave the obstacles and simply get on with living... talk about sucking out all the marrow of life...

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yet another moment of zen:


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