Six in the City - after the change

Back in the first "Six in the City" post I mused whether or not the time change would make a difference in my experience of the City at 6am. Well, I have an answer, or a couple of them: yes and no.

There is a lot more activity in the City at 6am standard time. There are more cars, more people, the people are more active. But, the thing that I find fascinating about this time of day, i.e., the sense of calm and mindfulness in the City, remains. This larger and more diverse number of people who are out are still polite, undistracted, and pleasant.

I find the fact that the time change hasn't seemed to automatically move everyone's schedules an hour to be comforting. Perhaps we aren't as tied to the contrivance of a mechanical clock as we think, perhaps we are really more attuned to the rhythms of the planet and solar system than we believe.

Or perhaps people use the opportunity of the time change to practice new resolve around getting up early.

In any case, just as my decision to sit with a group of people is encouraging, encouraging both to me and to them, this sense of propriety and mutual respect among those who populate Manhattan at 6am encourages me to get up early enough to be in the midst of it all. I hope I am encouraging them.