This evening, taking the subway back from a trip to see someone off at JFK airport, I was very aware of the energies of the people around me. Not so much their appearance, but their energies.
Most people were simply tired, trying to pull deep into their psychic casings, just wanting the ride to be over so they could move on to something they might find more pleasant and meaningful.
Some people — particularly young people — were thrumming with wild crazy energy, an overflowing sense of music and pounding beat and euphoric party time fever. This second group of people was clearly freaking out the first group.
And then there were the loners with strange energy. Maybe down on their luck, maybe schizophrenic, or maybe just endlessly exploring some private planet of their own. There was no need to look at them to feel it. You knew what was going on the moment they entered the subway car.
As I think of the possibilities of future reality — of some new technology or other enabling us to project our personalities into the world and into the air between us with a sense of visceral presence — I think of this subway ride.
We may one day free ourselves from the tyranny of our physical selves, but that’s the least important part of it all, isn’t it?
You can ditch your appearance, your physique, hell, even your body, but you cannot ditch yourself. Because, as old BB memorably said: “No matter where you go, there you are.”