11.17.2005

Cementers

     So yesterday morning I walked past the sidewalk outside of Schottenstein where some guy was jack hammering.   An hour later, the whole sidewalk was rubble.  There was dirt, New York City dirt.  At first, I thought how neat, that guy is really doing something.  Who else gets to dig around in NYC, the concrete center of the world?
     But today I walked past the same stretch of sidewalk and the same dude was putting the finishing touches on new cement.  After I fought back the urge to stick my hand in it and make an immortal, handprint graffiti, I wondered if he had actually done anything.  What if he just ripped up the sidewalk to lay more sidewalk?  What if that’s how New York sustains itself?  They just pay people to destroy, and then rebuild, its millions of miles of cement.
I guess if this were really true, we’d see these cementers more often.  
But still, how do we really know?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

here's my theory:
Cement is really scabs on the earth. See, the earth was breaking through the scab, healing if you will, and the city can't have that. So they sent a man to go remove the scab, exposing the ancient ground momentarily, then to lay down a fresh new scab that will take decades to heal...but before that happens they'll rip it up and put another one down. That is how New York City sustains itself: by keeping the earth in pain.

Anonymous said...

Tani's theory is the greatest theory since that show about kicking people in the nuts. I am happy to know Tani and Alexander thank you both for expanding my mind and my t-shirts.
Stay smooth.