I flew to the city reluctantly I was already tired and there is no place like New York to amplify exhaustion But then I spent 2 days with a friend and as we talked late into the night, I remembered that there is nothing like friendship to energize a weary soul The next few days were full of encounters with old friends and "important people" Every night, I ate food and had a drink and another drink and another until I lost count I spent my paycheck on fancy clothes in Soho and visited nice restaurants and elegant bars I began to enjoy the taste of ambition, money, and status that permeated the loud city air I went to a Russian bathhouse during the afternoons to cleanse my mind and body of the sins of the previous night I emerged restored and ready for more sin But no bathhouse could replenish all of the energy that my aging body had given to this wonderful and terrible city and I knew that my trip was coming to an end I entered the elevator to my hotel and wondered what the hell this was all for Why did I come to this city and plunge into the hurried existence that I had left behind 7 years ago? A bellman and a tall man joined me in the elevator We rode in silence up to the ninth floor where the tall man was supposed to get out But he was too busy looking at his phone to notice The bellman tapped the tall man's shoulder and said that he had arrived at his destination The tall man left without a thank you and the bellman and I shook our heads and smiled "People need to pay more attention," I said "YES, YES," the bellman roared and we laughed and laughed until we arrived at the 10th floor I exited the elevator and wished him well And that's when I began to realize what this trip was all about That laugh with the bellman was the reason I came to this city The bellman spends his days tending to hurried and ungrateful guests who are lost in the frazzled existence of people who are always trying to get somewhere and never quite arriving I understood these guests because I used to be one of them I had left this city 7 years earlier to learn how to exist in the world in a different way It took me many years to realize that there is no good reason to hurry, not just in a hotel, but in the streets, in marriage, in work, and in encounters with friends and strangers I walked in my hotel room and sat on the bed I had to leave this city before I forgot the lesson that I had fought so hard to learn It was time to live again without trying to get anywhere | 
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