“I will attempt to enlighten you with the 6% of my brain I am using”

Last night I headed to Union Square on a mission–find dinner or bust.

In NYC, though, this task is never simple. I emerged from the subway station, surveyed the prospects, then checked the time. 8:41 pm. This narrowed down my options to a Halal street cart, a Fro-yo truck, a strange woman selling sliced mangoes next to her little daughter, and the Whole Foods store. Hands down, Whole Foods looked like the safest option. As I head in the door, though, I am bombarded with a wave of chiming and thumping and automated sing-songing that make me think otherwise.

By the time I make it through the express line (with a 15 minute wait), I emerge from the store victorious holding my vegan chicken burrito with no place to eat. So I start walking down the street in search of an adventure. I pass a woman doing intricate henna tattoos and a man selling paintings, but neither interest me much. I pass a couple young men doing some kind of “business” by the water fountain and nearly run into with a group of exhausted tourists, before I stumble upon a crowd gathered on the steps of the square at the feet of a mad man with a mega phone.

“I will attempt to enlighten you with the 6% of my brain I am using,” is exactly what this loony said as he rambled on about the endless possibilities the human mind holds and how debt makes us all slaves to the system, limiting our thoughts and creative insights. And the crowd responds with questions for their great orator, a middle class man dressed as if he were an ex-hippie turned professor, waiting on him to fill their heads with knowledge and new conspiracy theory. And I watch with my burrito trying not to giggle as the man in the front rambles on and on about the same nonsense and the crowd cheers him on. And I stay–for a moment, enjoying the engaging philosophical debate occurring in front of me between these frustrated individuals with no where to go and no audience elsewhere who will give them a chance.

Welcome to NYC.