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Public Grooming

Dear Diary,

You know that thin, clear plastic wrapping superfluously used to shroud plastic deli cutlery?

On a recent upbeat commute home one Friday afternoon, I took a seat on a downtown subway to find a nearby passenger dutifully twisting and spinning his plastic wrapping found, for lack of any better tool, in his green carrying bag bearing an antiquated American Airlines logo. His goal? Dental floss.

At this realization, my concern shifted to any flight associated with his subsequent flossing mission, were he to be successful at dislodging his discomfort.

Herein represents the dynamic I both love and loathe about living in the city. In daily public life there is an ethos of “live and let live,” and at times, “let me live right-in-your-face.” It reminds me that the day is not just determined by me. After a number of years living here, I still reserve all my grooming to the privacy of my bathroom.

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