[lit-ideas] Re: The Island Called Gotham

JL: Eric notes the _isolation_ that multiculturalism brings . . . . then says he feels that in an emergency, all multiculturalism will be _eroded_ and a common kernel of solidarity will be found. He _knows_ because he was there not so far Ground Zero when it happened. 

Perhaps we should first distinguish between different kinds of isolation.

There is the isolation of newcomers who lack a wide circle of friends.
There is the isolation of dissimilar cultures in close association(oh, those damn unskilled mariachi guys playing under my window at midnight in 1992! oh, those barbarian Hells Angels bikers revving up their motorcycles at 4 a.m. after coming out of the bar down the street in 1994!). Then there is the positive isolation of seeing one's relative insignificance in the face of the hundreds of thousands of people one passes in the streets and subways every day. Here one, the center of the unique universe of one's point of view, arrives in a city so constantly peopled by energetic, motivated people, all engaged in living their lives as importantly as they can, from their unique universe centers. From this positive isolation comes important insights about one's place in the world ... and perhaps an epiphany that insignificance is a big as one can get.
As for solidarity in an emergency. I was *not* thinking of 9/11 when I wrote that. I was thinking of the countless, routine acts of kindness and help I have seen between anonymous New Yorkers.
A woman walks crosses 57th and Broadway on a winter day. She slips on ice and falls. I rush to help her, but two other people get there first. They help pick her up. She says she's fine. We all go our separate ways without a word.
I'm walking south from the Barnes and Noble at 86th and Lexington. A man collapses in the street. A woman dials 9-1-1. A doctor appears and puts the man in "the rescue position." I stand in the street blocking traffic, so the man will not be hit, until police and EMS arrive. They take charge and we all go our separate ways without a word.
These are routine acts. They happen all the time. Too many to list or even remember. No ethnic or economic common denominator. That's what I mean by "knowing" that any of those strangers would help me in an emergency. 


Eric
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