Dog vs. Kid

Washington Square park is one of my favorite places in the city. It's a square of concrete filled with wonderfully weird villagers and NYU students. Nothing is ever normal there (actually nothing is normal in NY). But I love how all groups of people migrate for a few hours a day to read, write, play, smoke or meditate.

Today I walked from my apartment to Washington Square to soak in the scene. I brought a new book, Glass Castle, and sat in the northeast corner of the park to escape city life and enjoy a book about someone’s miserable life.

Also in the northeast corner of this concrete oasis, is a playground. Like most New York playgrounds, all grass has been replaced with rubber. I noticed the different types of kids and parents. Some parents sat on the benches and barely watched the kids, while other parents stood in the middle of the playground monitoring everyone else’s kids but their own. I saw the high maintenance girl that wouldn’t play or socialize. I saw the bully and of course the geek. It was your typical playground with different types of parents/nannies and children with matching personalities.

Around chapter 5, my ADD kicked in and I needed to move. I walked from the northeast corner to the southwest corner to the Dog Park. I stood laughing out loud at all the lovable dogs when it hit me. There is no difference between these two parks. Yes one has dogs and one has little humans, but the relationships and activates are the same.

Some owners sat on benches surrounding the dog park, while others stood in the center yelling at other dogs, nervous that their dog would get sniffed from behind. I saw the young hippie with his matching mutt that he “rescued” from the UES shelter. The mutt would run in circles with the golden retriever whose owner was taking pictures to document the outing. I saw the older woman that no longer has animals but still brings biscuits for every dog at the park. I saw the young guy with his French bulldog puppy that he was excited to introduce to the park. The frenchy wanted nothing to do with the park instead walking from owner to owner begging for attention.

I like the world where dogs and humans have our own parks that mirror eachother. And, I like that we are not that different.