this is a cardboard box costume of spongebob.

4 - petition and intercession

Yesterday was the first day I've spent in New York City where I ended feeling inspired instead of just overwhelmed. Long ago, Michael and I talked about how the City is Too Much With Us, noticing that people there act as caricatures of themselves. There are too many stories behind each hipster haircut, old lady surrounded in fur, and man walking his children from their Saturday morning dance or swimming or piano lessons. There's something about New York that carries a weight of representation or modelling what lives are all about.

Modeling is a bit of a silly word, especially for me because we use it so much at work to describe our actions under the always watchful and absorbing eyes of children. I like to think of our adult dependence on each other for modeling, too. My peace yesterday, I think, came from this: That there's a little truth, a little love, a little lord in the lives around me if only my eyes are made to see.