THINK INSIDE THE BOX

PEOPLE STILL ASK ME HOW I LIKE NEW YORK. I moved here just over two years ago, so I continue to be an oddity among people who knew me before I started spending more on rent annually than I earned in a year on my first real job. My answer is sincere, though now a bit practiced: “I love it. It’s a city that takes energy, but gives energy.”

That’s not all it takes.

A couple of weeks ago, when the weather first gave me the cold shoulder, I grabbed my hat and a cab. When I got to work, they left together. DAMN! I forgot my favorite hat! A hat that had ended my quest for the perfect hat! A hat that had instilled contentment as few other possessions have before or since!

It was a classic newsboy/driver style cap that I thought was cool, though friends now tell me (as if talking about a fired employee they can finally say bad things about) it made me look like an old man. But I liked it. It was a sophisticated gray that went with black or blue coats. It was made of thick wool to keep the heat in. And it had stealth flaps that, when untucked and lowered, admittedly kept my appearance set on “nerd” but my ears really warm.

Calls to the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s Lost and Found hotline and an online “Lost Article” form yielded hatless responses, though more efficiency than I would have expected.

The next day I was walking, head naked to the elements, from the subway station to the office when I passed a young woman self-consciously dressed in chef-whites, handing out full-sized Lindt chocolate bars. Not little sample thingys, but the big Willy Wonka-type bars you find in Europe. Companies are forever handing out product samples and literature around New York, but this was a real find, a freebie of substance and sweetness. I said thanks, and finished my walk to work, letting the heft of the bar weigh my hand down at my side and take my mind off my light-headedness.

I liked it that the city seemed to be giving me a litte consolation prize for stealing my hat. It had a yin and yang quality to it that seems unique to New York: I’ve been lost in neighborhoods only to find an amazing little book store. I’ve been lost in stressful thoughts, only to find myself laughing outloud at the sight of an actual banana peel lying on the sidewalk, like a cartoon come to life. (In retrospect, I guess I really should have picked that up …) I’ve lost my fear of living in a big city, only to find I’m now afraid of leaving it.

I think it’s that energy exchange that makes New York and all the other great metropolises of the world such centers of creativity. Creativity thrives on stimulus and serendipity, perhaps the most abundant of this city’s natural resources. These resources have inspired countless odes to New York that nearly all newcomers feel compelled to write (or sing, or dance or paint). And this is one of mine: an appreciation of a caffeinated muse that percolates with new things to think and do, lose and find, faster than you can drink it in.

You gotta love a city that will take your hat but give you a chocolate bar.

© 2006 John Armato
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