A Random Act of Beauty.
i am always surprised by the random things that leave me inspired or otherwise feeling different then i did about the world moments before i saw whatever it was.
i hadn’t watched the news all day today. i went out to meet people and look at pictures. walking down 10 ave, i saw a helicopter, way too low. i looked around, i saw another, then another, then another and then the last. 5 helicopters hovering over manhattan, something is happening. i called one person, they didn’t know, so i tried to keep walking. then i overheard a passerby, someone was climbing the NYT’s building. i laughed, awesome, i don’t care why, but the idea of free climbing a building in the middle of mahattan, again, awesome. all the security in times square, all the security on that building and 2 jackasses can just show up and climb it, that is just classic.
i didn’t think much of it. i walked a block or two more, a crowd had formed on the next block. everyone standing around, oddly enough, all together, yet in small groups broken up according to class or skin color, all transfixed on the lone figure in a white shirt and orange pants. i stopped and watched some more among the strangers, it felt good to watch with them in a way i cannot explain, even though i still stood there alone. the two parking attendants behind me for whatever reason had binoculars, they let me peek. the man was almost to the top, paused, just before i stopped watching, he started climbing again, so close to the top, no gear, no safety device, just climbing, it was fucking beautiful.
i gave back the binoculars and started walking again, never looking back. as the blocks went by, i saw more and more people watching, one guy had even just bought a long lens for his crappy little SLR at BH (after all, it was right there), you could tell he just bought it just to get a closer look.
a few blocks later, the helicopters came screaming over, he must of made it or they would of stayed for more shots of the results of a fall, i smiled as i got to where i was going, i was glad he made it, i was glad he did it, i was glad i got to see it.
seems the first guy today was a protester, does it all the time, the second guy, the one i saw, some say may be a mentally ill copy cat, some say it was easy as the way the building was made, it may as well be a ladder, both of these things maybe true and they may not, i don’t really care. from where i was and how i saw it, i thought it was beautiful.