Vignette #1

Last night, when stranded in the cold dealing with a debacle after The Moon Show, my phone frozen, my fingers numb, I asked a passerby across the street if he could call me car. He kept walking, looking at my shoes that were not quite on my feet yet (I had been mopping the venue of the moon show) and he said “take the subway.” I was so angry and desperate that I wouldn’t accept his cold lack of empathy. So, I yelled as he continued to walk away. I yelled back his humanity. I told him I couldn’t take a subway, I had too much gear, my phone was dead and I was in a shitty situation, could he help. He paused and said “get a cab then.” I waved my arms pointing to the lack of traffic in any close proximity, still in shock of his indifference to my situation.

Finally he said he’d help me get a car, and he waited for me to collect my things.

I’ve imagined this situation with a lot of different people passing by, and I’d like to think that I could eventually get anyone to stop and help me. Though, even people who consider themselves generous and nice are often in too much of a hurry, or see the sidewalk merely as a means to get to where they’re going, and anyone on that arena, merely as backdrop. But I emerged from the backdrop to plea for help from a stranger, and it took him a while to recognize my need, my humanity, his humanity --the realization that we are interconnected in this world and we have to fucking help each other because in the end that’s all we have --our togetherness. We’re nothing without our connection to others. It’s easy to forget since we all walk around connected to technology instead of what is in front of us. But last night I had no technology to save me. I was alone on a desolate midnight street in Brooklyn. Who else is going to hear my cry for help but the one person walking by? I’d like to think that if someone else is need on the street that I will stop to help. I’d like to think that most people can be woken up out of their haze of disconnection, their lost sense of empathy, their rush to get somewhere. I’m hoping we all wake up soon, because there are some people who have been shouting for help for a while now, and it is fairly easy to not hear the cries of the marginalized.
Will we put down our phones and listen? ---

Beautiful Community
Now is the Time
Love and Protect Each other
Resist and Rise*


*lyrics by Emma Alabaster and myself