There are the lucky few who zone out their windows and stare at brinks. The faraway intrigue of a forest— how it conspires— or the streaked lines of an ocean fringed by its horizon, or a city with more sky than scrapers, or even the informality of a backyard at dawn. But there are those— my friend and I— who can zone out, quite easily, to whatever’s right in front of us, no matter how unspectacular. A poorly painted wall. Its cracks. The ceiling fan’s chop. A woman on the C train pulling her ponytail through its tie, not once or twice, but six times. Six complete loops; her fingers closing into a claw each time. It’d been months since I’d been to a museum, but watching this woman mechanically tie her hair was softly enormous.

~ Durga Chew-Bose, from “Heart Museum” in Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays

Image: deryhana