Here Lies the True Magic

When people talk about the magic of New York City, they always mention the flashing lights, the towering skyscrapers, and the endless amount of things to do. The Broadways plays, the restaurants, and the fashion sense: You name it, Manhattan's got it. But perhaps the true magic of the city that never sleeps lies within the silence. The silence drowned out by the subway performers who play the classics you know and love, the constant honking of taxi cabs trying to weave their way through traffic, and the chatter of tourists as they look up at landmarks they've only ever seen in postcards. The silence shared between two groups of pedestrians as they wait for the light to change. The intimacy suspended in the air between dozens of strangers as their busy days are halted for a second, or maybe thirty. For a single moment, two clusters of souls are forced to be as one until they all walk off in opposite directions and go on to live the rest of their lives, never to think about the mundane moment they just shared with humans they probably won't ever see again.

 

So much of our lives have been spent in silence, yet none of us take the time to really appreciate it. The time we spend on the subway, packed in like sardines, exchanging body heat with nameless faces, all of us with a certain destination in mind. The time we spend on line at our local coffee shop, too preoccupied with figuring out what we want to order to even exchange a simple hello with the person waiting next to us. The time we spend standing in a pit at a concert venue, impatient and complaining for the main act to come on, too consumed with what we want right then to realize that everyone around us shares a passion of ours. So much is being said in these silences, yet no one ever seems to be listening.

 

We spend so much of our time waiting and wanting and existing in the in-betweens of life that we forget all about the lives in full motion around us. In the moments we spend trying to get from Point A to Point B, we are surrounded by countless of stories waiting to be told, journeys waiting to be embarked on, and destinies waiting to be fulfilled. In these simple, quiet moments, someone's heart is breaking. Someone is losing a friend. Someone is losing his job, while another is getting a promotion at his. All of this lingers in the silence between us, but none of us bother to listen.

 

Within each person is a beautiful abyss of secrets, experiences, hopes, and dreams. Within each person is a past, a present, and a future. And though we may only be a part of that single moment in the present of that one person... Isn't that magic enough? To be able to celebrate the mere existence of life in the deafening silence we all dread and desperately try to fill with pointless, meaningless noise? 

 

It's sad to think that the only time we ever really appreciate the beauty of this silence is when it's all there is left to be heard, and we find ourselves wishing we had started listening sooner.