almost every instance of our lives, our social lives, we are, if we pay attention, in the midst of an almost constant, if subtle, caretaking. Holding open doors. Offering elbows at crosswalks. Letting someone else go first. Helping with the heavy bags. Reaching what's too high, or what's been dropped. Pulling someone back to their feet. Stopping at the car wreck, at the struck dog. The alternating merge, also known as the zipper. This caretaking is our default mode and it's always a lie that convinces us to act or believe otherwise. Always.

72. An Abundance of Public Toilets

I DON'T MEAN this delight to diminish the dignity-violating absence of public toilets, public bathrooms, in New York City, which is a failure and a carelessness. A ruthlessness, in fact, that reminds me somehow that ours is a country where property is more valued than people are.