We Breathe
“We all breathe”, she said, “on the inhale …. I am you…. on the exhale …..you are me.” It’s a yogic concept I suppose, that when you inhale, it’s more than oxygen you’re breathing in, but energy, the environment, the breath of someone else.
It’s easy to forget that we’re so deeply interconnected. It’s easier for us to categorize each other, Democrats or Republicans, apathetics, liberals, New Yorkers, Southerners etc,.. But on other nights, we’re just people who like to eat out on a clear, Fall, New York night. Sharing a table, making recommendations on menu items, and laughing at how far off the center we are.
They say that New Yorkers don’t care, that we keep our heads down and mind our own business, sometimes we may even bump into each other, and not bother to apologize. Tonight, at Republic – an Asian fusion restaurant located off of Union Square, I had dinner with my friend Heather. At Republic they seat you in bench like tables that somehow channel Zen rather than lunchroom cafeterias, though in both cases, you have two swing a leg to get sit and stand from the tables.
These two lovely southern women sat next to us, they were teachers from Mississippi, they’d brought their senior students for a visit in NYC, as they do every year. And they were just so sweet. Their drawl was positively charming, they exuded warmth when trying new flavors, and engaged us with their honest conversation. At some point it came out that we were on two different political fences, but it hardly seemed to matter. If only all experiences when encountering differences were so pleasant. Then maybe when we breathed in it would really be “you breathing in me”, and me breathing in you.
