Humans of New York

by Norm Miller
editor/moderator

I’m a night owl. That means I watch the late night monologues, maybe stick around for certain celebs to appear. Catch up on the blogosphere. Stuff like that.

Usually in bed by 1 or so, I got a second wind mid-way through a re-run on Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night show (Cosby was incredible: spontaneous and side-splitting).

Then Carson Daly’s “Last Call” came on. He featured an amateur fotog, Brandon Stanton, the curator of the blog, Humans of New York. Stanton’s interview was deeply intriguing to me. He started with a blog and now has a NYT best-selling book titled/fashioned per his blog.

As a “faux-tographer” (I just think I can take pix), I decided to visit Brandon’s blog. The imagery is engaging, and the accompanying interviews offer numerous reactions – the gamut of emotions.

While gawking down the page, my eyes landed on Charlie’s picture and Brandon’s interview with him.

A: I’m trying to get out of my brokenness.

Q: Why are you broke

A: I was born broke. Nobody ever gave me anything. Nobody ever bought me anything. But I made it hard on myself, too. I left school. I left home. I threw all my stuff in the street and left.

Q: Why’d you do that?

A: My feelings were hurt. Nobody ever cared about me. Nobody ever said, “Charlie, what’s wrong?” They said, “Shut up, Charlie. We’ve got our own set of problems.”

So, where do *we* go from here? Tell Charlie to abandon the pity party? Or, think: “How sad, especially a Christmas time”?

The Spirit of Jesus Christ took me to all the Charlies of the world.

How many are there?

If we ignore their needs, are we not prioritizing ourselves?

This editor/moderator wants to thank Brandon for his blog, and to recommend you visit Humans of New York. It will  inform your humanity and challenge your spirituality.*

*Caveat: But you probably won’t agree with all you see or read. I didn’t.
FYI: The blog has 2 million-plus FB likes.