The city’s unpredictable weather conditions seldom prevent New Yorkers from taking the streets. Snow or sleet, rain or shine, the city never stops, and neither do its people. We all deal with the same wavering temperatures in the damp concrete jungle, all alike. But if my people-watching for the sake of entertainment has taught me anything, it’s that we’re all different at the end of the day; we all possess personal characteristics that make us distinct from one another.
Our skin color, hair color, race, ethnicity, gender, and even clothing can craft our perceptions of others: dark skin versus fair skin, slender versus full-figured, Gucci dress versus Gap jeans, leather briefcase versus canvas knapsack, flowing blonde locks versus a bun in a hairnet, and so on.
For the most part, we can’t help the way we look; we have no choice but to expose these personal visual traits to the world, like skin color or professional attire. Yet, these visual cues present the space for us to make assumptions and to leap to conclusions about others based solely on their external depictions. We quickly associate people’s physical features with further meanings and implications – like socio-economic status, class, profession, and even personality – and as a result, we resort to a place surface-level judgment.
Nevertheless, maybe there lies the possibility of these appearance-based distinctions blurring and washing away…
Walking down Madison Avenue today, I was caught in the middle of an astounding spectacle: Translucent clouds softly caved in as rain began to fall from the sky, drenching the city. The buildings reflected sparkling metallic hues as colorful umbrellas popped open on the sidewalks, like tulips blooming in the spring. And rather than the different physical identity traits I usually notice each day, I saw the pedestrians around me as blurred reflections in puddles – ambiguous silhouettes against obscuring city lights with their faces hidden in hopes of staying dry.
Suddenly, the rain became a cleansing, equalizing force – a visual cloak of sameness that beautifully fell upon the city and made everyone come across somewhat similarly for the time being. Of course, there is nothing wrong with our unique traits and differences; they make us who we are. Yet, it was refreshing, even just for a few minutes, to see the superficial nuances I normally come across that can divide us, rinse away into the pavement.
Perhaps, therefore, we mustn’t identify others, even strangers, so heavily and rigidly based on appearance. Because once we’re rid clean of our visual differences that sit on the surface – when all that’s left are reflections in puddles, umbrellas and silhouettes – who are we then?
