All the Neon Lights
As I stood on the chaotic corner of 45th and Broadway a child caught my eye, no, actually, it was more like her gaze seared my soul.
As music blared, smoke silhouetted, and people hollered, I was overcome by the car horns and the chaos around me. How could it be I thought – that I am surrounded by people but have never felt more alone in my life?
And so I stood.
Transfixed by the child staring down at me.
Slowly the sound became muffled by the silence in her stare. I thought how powerful this is, that this advertisement sits nestled amongst the very thing that has undoubtedly, and immeasurably contributed to the crisis, yet in her silence, no flashing lights, no neon blazing, no sound penetrating the pavement – there she was.
On this most famous of corners, surrounded but alone, I stood.
It is impossible to be in Times Square and not take a moment to compose oneself, to contemplate which side of the coin we are on – to walk away uncomfortably, or to stay joyfully.
That coin in hand, the contemplation commences am I on the side that values having, or the side that values humanity or can I be both?
Perhaps this moment in time was designed to bring me to this place, to stand me on the corner of contemplation and question the side of the coin that was mine.
A bigger question then rose within – what on earth have we done?
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We all want to believe that we are on the side of the coin that values self over the superficial but how do we live this in a world full of sound, full of messages that make us feel substandard and shallow?
The side of self does not make us selfish; our choices do.
The side of self should be celebrated, for if we are kind, respectful, patient, caring, then we should feel confident in who we are and drive towards our dreams with earnest resolve.
But if we are drawn into the neon world, the blazing sounds, and the social constructs without an innate understanding of self, then our side of the coin will forever be superficial – hence the crisis, hence the stare, hence the solemnity on the face of the girl staring down on me.
How can she be expected to choose correctly if she has no sense of self? If all the neon lights drew her into a darkness, she was too young to see, a world she was too young to navigate, and a path she could not turn back from?
Later that night, when I left her on the corner, I watched the Senate Committee hearing into alleged online harms to children and listened to Mark Zuckerberg defend his corporations’ internal machinations regarding the targeting of ten years old's for a new child version of Facebook. I listened to Evan Spiegel defend Snapchat as a platform where young children were able to access illicit drugs and overdose on fentanyl, "sorry", he said to the now childless parents sitting behind him.
What does sorry matter if the words spoken change nothing?
Perhaps both CEOs would do well to look into the eyes of the girl on the corner of 45th and Broadway?
Perhaps we all would.
Lucy M. Gowdie
AI | Educator | LMS Admin/Integration/Coach @ International School Westpfalz ??
1 年Times Square has always been a great place to get a good view of the current state of affairs. I moved to the city around the late 90ies and can tell you that everything you wrote is very accurate, I recall the years leading up to the Y2K and how tense was the turn of the century which was ushered by a huge hurricane, only to get eclipsed by the 9/11 tragedy where I lost one of my close friends who was one of the first responders dispatched from the FDNY UES…No sooner that the dust settled, the great blackout of the North-East hit us and my complaints of having to walk home were eclipsed by close friends’ that were trapped underground in the subway tunnels under the river and had to walk in the dark on the subway tracks all the way out to safety. Now, in Richmond Virginia, all those memories and close friends feel far away, until I come across something as riveting as your article. Thanks for sharing those thoughts and the awesome experience (I shared it too??).