The beat.

Sheldon is originally from Guyana. He says he’s a country boy. Like the peace and quiet of living in the country. Grew up hearing the cocks crow at sunrise. His closest neighbor was at least a hectare away. He speaks with a very sing-songy New York / Caribbean accent, with a slightly French sounding tongue. His accent is clearly in transition. A transition which may never fully happen. He works as one of the SOHO doormen in the building I’m staying in.

I asked Sheldon what he thought were the best and worst things about living in NYC. Immediately he responded, “the best thing is that it’s a city that never sleeps. The worst… well, the noise. It’s very noisy.”

To me, the noise is only part of the music of the city. The trucks, the sirens, the screeching of the breaks of a subway car, the people speaking at a slightly higher volume than you hear any where else. It’s just part of the song. An instrument in the overall melody that is NY.

Later in the conversation Sheldon explained to me how he describes the city to his friends that have never been here. “The city is like your heartbeat. It never stops. At night, when it rests, the beat slows down a bit, but it never completely stops. In the day, it beats a little faster.”

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