To Reflect Upon the Moon: Sleep Inn

Music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d004yhBFmHI

Food Review:
So instead of reviewing a single food item it'll be more fun to talk about a location with one of their dishes highlighted, so that's what I'll do from now on (:
This week, we visited an authentic New York deli! Many attempt to emulate these fabled destinations of frugal flavor throughout the country, but we all know that the experience just isn't the same if you're not walking along the streets yourself, sub in hand.

Guided by a real live New Yorker, I was led to L - Mo's Market!

The owner shows off his menu.
The reasonable price of which had me questioning if I was actually still in NYC.

Like many NYC delis, there is also a grocery for most of your other needs.
Some groceries out there are a bit haphazard, but L - Mo's is exceptionally clean.

Competition within the city keeps things fresh!

I went with my guide's suggestion: The Kale Sandwich! The crunchiness of the green went perfectly with the soft tofu and avocado!

Get an L - Mo's sub and you'll be smiley too :D

     Thoughts:
I've never liked New York City. Living a few hours away in Connecticut, I had relatively easy access to the metropolis simply by taking a two hour train ride. At that time though, it felt to me as a huge hassle. The chaos and the grime and the cars and buses and just being there was exhausting. I never really had a nice time and usually left the city of millions feeling lonely, dirty, and ripped off in some way or another. I didn't understand anything back then.
I have learned much since my cloistered youth. It started when I took my first big bike trip some 360 miles North to Montreal, Canada. My life long friend and adventure partner Noah left ahead of me, so I was alone to explore the city—an experience I never had before. At the time I would say that my City Exploration Level was one at best, so I didn't really know what I was doing, but more than anything I began learning how to learn. I met people and asked questions. I wandered about and made connections. I found places of use and interest. I got lost. I got found.
Nearly a year later, upon leaving on this journey, I knew I wan't ready for The Big Apple. I explored Boston for a day and a night as well, and from there and Montreal I'd say my City Exploration Level was up to 3—minimum requirement for NYC being 8. So I bypassed it. I didn't stop anywhere at all, opting to head straight to the ferry that took me cross the bay to the Northern shore of New Jersey. Though I say I left my home in Connecticut, which is true of course, in many ways the journey truly began where so many other journeys also begin—departing my train in Grand Central Station.
This week, I returned to that city. After exploring Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, and Asheville, and learning about people and so so much more, I can reasonably estimate my City Exploration Level to at least 18. I was ready for the City That Never Sleeps. More than just the city, I was ready for a challenge. So with my companion Claire, I headed into the city via train and walked around normally for a bit, just to scout things out with my new lens upon reality. The challenge, and fun, really started when Claire departed, leaving me alone with 0 dollars in my pocket and about one meals worth of food in my backpack, along with a few supplies including a dying cell phone with no charger, $1 rain poncho, my journal of course, and a towel.
As an aside of reflection, this truly shows just how much I have grown and learned these past few months. Never would I ever have considered diving into New York City with no funds to speak of and few supplies, yet I took the leap, with full confidence that I would not only be able to acquire anything that I may need, but that I would also meet plenty of amazing people, learn a lot, and have an overall great time. Guess what happened!
Well if my excitement and the fact that you're reading this at all is any indication, I had a stupendous adventure in New York City despite not having or spending a dime nor a definitive place to stay. I guess some people come to this city with a hotel room booked, grab lunch/dinner at the overpriced version of whatever chain is currently in Times Square, and enjoy a boat tour around Ellis Island. I don't want to say there's anything wrong with that, but to truly experience and understand the city, I prefer my method: Sleeping in the subway, pizza in a box I found on the ground, and a walk around some park, talking with any of the people on the benches that'll talk back to me.
I admit though that the first day I was rather unsettled. New York City has always been a particularly overwhelming place for me. Honestly, I never really "got it" before. After all I've learned and been through, I think I'm starting to understand. The experience of the city is unique. We created it, so it's reflective of our wants and desires, but no one ever considered or foresaw the effect it would have on us. To understand any city, you have to understand its people. To understand the people of NYC, you have to understand their experience. Each individual's is different of course, but these few factors helped me see the city better for what it is, and what it isn't.
Firstly, The Flow. Machines and sounds and music and smells and things. The senses are overwhelmed! But more than any of those things, it is the people. Energy is just moving around everywhere in a current. As I've said before, we are affected greatly by our environment, and anyone who has walked the busy streets of this city may have been able to feel it; the environment here in stifling. People are busy, getting to and fro where they need to be, following their path and fulfilling their own obligations. No one has time to stop and chat with people on the street. Moving around in this flow, people learn to put their walls up and be unaffected by outside energy, and I don't blame them!
Go to New York City and just try to put your wall down. It's hard! Some people might not even be able to do it! If you can get your wall down, then try to leave it down. Try to be just open and friendly to all creatures big and small. It's exhausting! Keeping ones wall up in The Flow is a survival technique for some people. They haven't figured out how to retain the energy they need to survive while leaving themselves at least a little open to outside influence. The streets are a perfect training ground to improve this, but few are actively working on that because...
Temptation. It's everywhere in the city! If you have the money, you can get anything you want. As you walk around, signs, advertisements, people in uniforms, the stores themselves, are all trying to tell you what you want and what you need right now and how it'll make you happy and that for just $5.99 you could have it right now. Naturally, anyone who doesn't figure out how to determine their own needs is going to be broke, with a whole bunch of crap, really fast. But there's a level to everything. If you're hungry and you see a giant zoomed in picture of a cinnamon roll, well you really do need that right? And if you like sweet cinnamon things (like I do) then you want one right? So now you're thinking about food, and the food you want to get, 'cause you have the money and options and you get to choose. Maybe you get the cinnamon roll, maybe you get your favorite hummus wrap, whatever, all that matters is what is going on up there, in your head.
If you're thinking about food, or clothes, or the new iphone, or whatever else you can do with the money you have, then you're not thinking about anything else, including but by no means limited to, how to better your life, escape from this shitty city, get a better job, find love and happiness, fulfill your dreams, or whatever you want to think about I don't know I'm not you. So while you're thinking about all these things that'll probably make you happy if you just had the money to get them all you invariably start thinking about how to get more money, so you can get more things, to be more comfortable and happy, probably. And pretty soon, whatever your ideals were or dreams you used to want to follow were, well those things can wait because you have to get money first, and really all these other people in the city are just in your way, so it's best to just ignore them, and an easy way to do that that everyone else is doing is by putting ear phones in your ears and looking at your phone until you're no longer in The Flow of people.
Now I'm not saying every single person in NYC is some money mongering greedster, but I am positing that the environment of the city helps promote this, and that yes, many people that live and exist there are simply asleep. They aim to numb their emotions rather than feel them, seek things and pleasures over experiences and connections, and are too busy with their own little lives that they can no longer see the illusion from the reality. I may sound harsh, but I'm not judging; I was there once too after all. But the whole world there is set up to keep people there, asleep and consuming.
I fear that The City That Never Sleeps may no longer be quite an accurate title.

     Poetry:
     I wrote this poem for a lady named Wendy.
     She was on a corner in downtown NYC flying a sign.
     She's stuck in the city and trying to get home to Florida. She had one helluva a story how she got stuck there.
     She wasn't having much luck so I tried playing my harmonica to draw attention.
     I'm not good enough yet I guess, I only got her $1 ): I wrote this poem on her cardboard in the hopes that someone would read it, get it, and give.
     I am constantly struck at just how normal it is to ignore people in need. I really don't want to seem self-righteous about this, but I don't feel this is the sort of behavior we as a people aught to feel is acceptable. I believe everyone wants to give, but no one wants their gifts to be wasted or unappreciated. Further, people are busy living their own lives. This is all fair, but something is wrong when hundreds, thousands, of people walk by looking the other way. What does this say about us? What are we teaching our children by doing this? What could possibly be more important than teaching our children how to give?

     "See NYC"

     You can see the buildings
     You can see the sights,
     You can see the parks
     You can see the lights!

     You can see the stores
     with products on the shelves;
     We can all see each other
     but can we see ourselves?

Pictures:

Cleanin' myself up before heading into the city.

I needed it after months on the road!
Though I'll miss that rugged untamed look...

Only in New York City will you find the oldest Gothic style church in the country...
Turned into a clothing outlet and fitness gym.

The beautiful stained glass overlooks the front desk and treadmill area
with protein bars underneath.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall ~ Corinthians 10:12

The story of this painting is amazing!
It was given to Puff Daddy as a thank you for helping in Obama's campaign.
My friend was walking by the rapper's offices one day when he saw this about to be crushed by the Garbage Truck. He saved it along with some nice new clothes!

Behind this wall of very impressed onlookers is a very shiny and very loud very spiffed out car.
I didn't car about the car, but find the interest itself that it draws very telling.

That's Wendy in the corner. The crowd is all taking a picture of the sunset with their smartphones.
Is the meaning of a sunset not more of the beauty and color of the moment?
What will these people feel and remember when, years later, they look at their picture of an orange circle, the magnificence of which lost through the digitizing lens?