Other People and Other Thoughts

During my wanderings on this agreeable June morning, I encountered a USPS Priority Mail sticker on a Broadway El pillar. It was an interesting offshoot of graffiti, I thought. Soon after that, I came upon a woman who reminded me of someone from yesteryear. And one thought led to another. Yes, that dim bulb with the narrowest of worldviews. Once upon a time that ghost from the past said to me, “You think things are funny that other people don’t!” She didn’t mean it as a compliment, but I took it as one. The gal also claimed that she never saw me laugh. Being the gentleman that I am, I didn’t tell her the obvious reason: She never said or did anything that—even remotely—made me crack a smile. One clarification: The lady said and did a few things that were unintentionally funny—but, then, I think things are funny that other people don’t.

Speaking of funny—or a bit bizarre—I recently completed an online application for my new GP. A predictable question inquired as to my gender: “Male, Female, or Don’t Know.” Why did Christopher Walken pop into my head? I don’t know.

Further, during my daily rounds, I caught a glimpse of a woman that I’ve seen before. Well, at least I think it’s a woman. She dresses in the full burka, even in unbearable heat and humidity as I recall from last summer. Now, I do know that we live in a ridiculously politically correct climate with the ever-vigilant thought police waiting to pounce and pronounce one a bad boy or bad girl. But here’s my take on what it means to be an American nowadays. Remember the oft-used expression: “It’s a free country.” For arguments sake, let’s assume that it still is. My responsibility as an American citizen in a pluralistic society is to live and let live. If an individual wants to amble around—in the twenty-first century—looking like a cross between the Ghost of Christmas Future and the Adventures of Superman’s “Man in the Lead Mask,” so be it. As a little kid, they both gave me the creeps. So, despite the visual being invariably unsettling to me, I quietly pass by—respecting that person’s right to think and dress as he or she sees fit.

Some forty years ago, an elderly Italian man from the old neighborhood told my older brother—who was sporting a bushy beard and somewhat long hair at the time—that he looked like “a damn fool.” The octogenarian paesano didn’t quite abide by the “live and let live” concept. President Lyndon Johnson said in his 1965 inaugural address: “Freedom asks more than it gives.” True-dat. Protecting the rights of all citizens is the role of government, not policing their thoughts or tampering with their funny bones. Many on the right and the left have, seemingly, lost sight of the American Way.

(Photos from the personal collection of Nicholas Nigro)