| | Grand Central Station represents purposeful motion (as noted by Ted Keer and Rodney Rawlings). Yet, in our action, we see other people only as snapshots, blurs, brief cameos, walk-ons, as they purposely pass us in turn. What if that moment were frozen, to be held for full examination?
Have you never wanted to stop time to hold a moment in your perception?
Here, these people were not standing rigidly at attention or lying down or sitting. Each was stopped in mid-motion. (It was practiced. They worked at this to pull it off. It was not random, but only appeared so, through its artistry.) In mid-stride, mid-sentence, mid-reach or mid-touch, each was held in clear display. Not just one person -- though that would have been fine -- but many enough to communicate to many more that something unusual had happened and was happening.* Indeed, "was" and "is" are now open for discussion.
And what do people "do" each moving moment? Each frozen figure was engaged in something purposeful. None was irrationally capering or mindlessly lolling about. We move -- especially through Grand Central Station -- with motive and motivation. Here was snapshot of that.
... and yes, the ones most disturbed or interrrupted were the public employees whose lives consist of routine, for whom the purpose of others is, after all, only a blur... Those who metaphysically need the expected are most easily upset. Think about how the Three Stooges react to a surprise. At the other end, was the hiphop tune about "Things that make you say 'Hmmm'" People who are cool take in what is new and think about it.
*(In The Matrix, it was said that your feeling of "deja vu" is the Matrix reloading a changed moment.)
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207 People "Freeze" in Grand Central Station
