Over time we get conditioned to ignore the banalities of daily life; and sometimes we look for a deeper meaning behind the picayune. Someone cuts us off in traffic, and we feel that they are out to “get us”. Someone doesn’t return our call or email and we are convinced they are snubbing us. Heck, sometimes it seems that even the weather conspires with mysterious forces of the universe to ruin a perfectly planned weekend.

We all (even the most zen amongst us) have those moments. Having spent a few days in the nerve center of sensory overload that is Manhattan, as a visitor I had the opportunity to do something that native New Yorkers rarely do: stand and stare. Walking a bit slower than (and being jostled aside by) the stream of harried denizens, and occasionally stopping to admire the last burst of pre-winter colors on trees in the middle of an unapologetic concrete jungle I was able to strip away some of the layers of judgment that sandwich reality and perception – at least in my own mind.

I bring you thus a random list based on thoughts of things that sometimes are what they seem to be, and perhaps sometimes not.

© rashesh jethi

Sometimes those that are in a hurry may not be running towards, but away from something.

Sometimes when a person says have a nice day, they’re really hoping to have one themselves.

Sometimes trying to make a living gets in the way of living.

Sometimes when someone says “thank you” they actually mean “f**k you”.

Sometimes the trains are crowded but the journey is lonely.

Sometimes money doesn’t solve all our problems, but it does solve our money problems.

Sometimes dad seems old-fashioned and out of touch, sometimes he just knows something you won’t for another twenty years.

Sometimes love is truly all we’ve got.

Sometimes a minute is sixty seconds, sometimes a lifetime.

Sometimes tomorrow comes too soon, sometimes never.

We are always the authors of the stories in our own mind, so your list may be different. Sometimes a list like this is, well, just a list !