WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT NEW YORK CITY 10 YEARS LATER:

I am sick of New York City.

It’s loud and gross and crowded. People are rushing. People are mindlessly consuming everything they can. People are trashing the planet through single use plastic after single use plastic. Low level anxiety everywhere, built into everyday life. I missed the train! F**k! I made the train, but it’s crowded. F**k! the train is skipping my stop.

I am sick of it.

Except, I’m also in love with it.

And I want to tell you why.

LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY GIVES YOU A HUMAN EXPERIENCE IN ITS RAWEST FORM:

I once heard someone say New York City is not real life. “It’s a playground for grown-ups,” he told me.

I don’t think that’s true.

I think it is exactly real life.

Here are a few reasons why:

Consumption - always. All over. Lights, billboards, plastic cups with expensive coffee and sipped out of plastic straws to be tossed in any “trash” can to be found, without thinking which bin, if it even makes it in the trash at all. Fast fashion, banners on bus stops, ads on the subways, Facebook marketing your every touch. We are not even in control of our consumption anymore. New York City is proof. Just walk around and watch.

Disconnection - from ourselves and our planet and our plates and each other. Uff, another homeless person on the train. I see the faces, the ones that look up. Annoyed that this person is disturbing their commute home. Yep, home. Think about that for a second. You get off and go home. Disconnected.

Addiction - to stress, rush, sex, alcohol, drugs, screens, speed. I was eating in a Chinese restaurant last week in Flushing with friends and saw a man pour a pint of vodka in his soup. His wife didn’t even flinch. He finished the soup in less than 5 minutes.

Sacrifice - people working hard to make things happen for themselves and their families. The person in front of you at the supermarket paying with their food stamps on a $28,000 annual salary as you make over a million dollars a year. The elderly being cared for by someone who is not a family member. The mom carrying the stroller down dozens of subway steps to get her sick toddler to the doctor.

Pain - deportation, sex trafficking, slaughterhouses - yes, all of these things are happening all over the city every day.

Diversity - interests, ethnicities, backgrounds, professions, income, and religion. Just get on a train and you get it.

But Brian, this is all so heavy. This feels so dark. This is why you love New York?

If you know me or follow my work, you know I am an eternal, unapologetic optimist. And I still am, and always will be. But there is a fine line between optimism and delusion. Between seeing what you want to see because it is most convenient for you, versus becoming truly aware of what’s happening, even if it makes you uncomfortable or challenges what you previously thought about what you previously thought.

I did not come to New York to be comfortable. I came to find the intersection of where raw human grit meets magical serendipity. And for 10 years now, I have explored, and experienced, just that.

But perhaps just when you think you’ve “found it,” you realize that you just scratched the surface. That there is more magic brewing to fuel your hope. More pain to build your compassion. More consumption to move you towards less participation in the machine that builds it. More disconnection to inspire you to reach out to someone you love or put your bare feet in the grass or eat a plant instead of an animal. More addiction to break down your judgement. More sacrifice to appreciate the success that sometimes sweetly follows. More pain to help you shine light. And more diversity to build tolerance towards a more inclusive future.

And for me, that’s what it means to live in “the city that never sleeps.”

Because just when I think it’s time to rest, this city shows me - sometimes with a gentle rub, and others with an aggressive shake.

Brian, wake up. There is work to do today.

For you, for me, and for all of the 8.6 million imperfect souls on this island who are having a real human experience, together.

That’s why I love New York City.