When I first moved to NYC I was shocked by how many couples you see making out in the street, in bars, on subways. Just so much public displays of affection! Why didn't these people find somewhere private?Of course because there really isn't somewhere private. This isn't Los Angeles where you can go make-out in your car. This isn't Minneapolis where... well, where there just isn't that much displays of affection. (I kid, Minneapolis! ... sort of.) Personal private spaces just don't exist outside of folks apartments... and often not outside of one's room. Yes, everyone could hold off until they got to their apartments before they kissed, but then you are suddenly in a place where you have the option to do more than just kiss... and sometimes you just want to kiss and not go beyond. At that moment at least.
We spend a lo of time creating personal bubbles in NYC, private zones where the rest of the your is not allowed to intrude. It is entirely imaginary but it is how we survive ALWAYS being surround by other humans. That whole ignore-the-outside-chaos-while-on-the-subway thing. It's healthy (in moderation, of course).
There are are special moments when you create a bubble with someone else. Suddenly you find yourself in a very private and intense space with one other person in the middle of the masses of New York. Everything else just melts away and and it is just you and them, deep in conversation or eyes or whatever. I think New Yorkers are particularly good at this skill and it is no surprise that they can slip into the intimate right then and there.
It used to shock me. Now I see a couple kissing under a street light, in front of a stoop, on the subway, I find it sweet. Yes, sweet.
