It’s 6th Avenue. And then it’s 7th. Up and down. Stop and go.
Some of us are walking. We may get rained on. It takes us much longer to arrive. We may not ever get where we’re going on time. A loss.
Others are driven. A comfortable backseat from which to daydream and scheme. An easy ride to catch our breath and still get somewhere faster.
Sometimes, we get lucky. We find a penny face-up, or a dime to make the rest of our subway fare with. Maybe someone even offers a ride, at least some of the way. Or we have enough to hail a cab.
And sometimes, an accident happens. Traffic grinds us to a halt. We huff and puff, wondering if it’s even worth going all the way.
The rest of us might just be floating along, content with each pit stop more than any final destination. Convinced that as long as we’re moving, we’re fine.
The point, I guess, is that there isn’t enough room for everyone on the road, nor on the sidewalk or on the train. Maybe it’s better to wait for the next one. To not rush, and trust that wherever we’re going, we’ll get there somehow.
And sometimes, we may just be going the wrong way. Or we’re just not supposed to get there at all.
If and when we finally arrive, does it even matter how we got here?
It does.
You, still young, never having lost, not a tear shed or a decimal missing. You never bother to even consider it the luck you have, and that others don’t.
Or you, now aged and creaky, arriving with less than you had before, or nothing at all. Bitter that no one ever slowed down enough for you to catch up.
What then? Is it worth your efforts? Would you rather give or take? It’s easy to assume your walk is a necessity, the other’s ride a luxury.
Is there a way we can all move at the same pace? The same level of comfort? Is there a way to make this all more fair?
Or is this all of this built on the notion that the only responsibility we have is to ourselves, and that believing any deck of cards can dictate our fate is, itself, just a precarious house of cards?
It’s the illusion that life is anything but a zero-sum game.
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