-connected-

so it's early on a thursday morning. i sit here at butler library on campus looking out the frosty window at symbols of academia, grand halls, large steps, stautes, you know, everything you love when you walk on the columbia campus at eight in the morning. not so surprisingly, the library is already starting to fill up this last week of the semester heading into finals... and i sit here with my free daily medium hot chocolate and donut from dunkin donuts, thinking.




it's the eve of my two last finals on my first semester here in dental school. and i cannot wait for this to all be a memory instead the current place it sits in my mind. more importantly, it is the eve of the long awaited MTA strike. so at 12:01 tonight, if a contract has not been drawn, there will be no subway, bus, ferry workers running the show tomorrow. yes, strategically placed right before the christmas/holiday/whatever else anybody wants to call it season, putting huge strain on the massive commerial activity asssociated therein. the city sits to lose 1.6 billion dollars everyday the strike continues. so hopefully i won't last too long if it does get up and running. c'mon, i have some money spending to do. luckily, i have my trusted yellow steed, so i should be alright getting to school to write off this semester tomorrow morning.


nonetheless, i got a taste of the enormous residual dependency developed into society yesterday morning as i went to school. for whatever reason, still unbeknownst to me, the 1 train subway trains were super crowded in the morning. so tight, that i didn't even have to hold on to any poles because there was nowhere for me to budge. elevator to street level, same story. so packed. realizing that this is days before the forecasted MTA strike, i was struck with the distinct connectedness we share as humanity. long past are the days where we can take our little brother lenny, get a piece of property and live off the fat of the land, you know, with bunnies and stuff. here in manhattan the connectedness bears an even heavier tone.

so stay connected. it's the definitive mark of modernism.