Union Square Vegetable Peeler Passes Away

I was just blog-surfing when I came across a post that the Union Square Vegetable Peeler guy, whose name was Joe, passed away at the age of 75 this week.

When I moved to New York almost ten years ago, I loved the vastness of this city. I remember riding the subway and thinking, "NOBODY here knows me...they don't know that I don't wear bright red lipstick...I could wear bright red lipstick!" It sounds ridiculous, but that idea of re-inventing myself after coming from the teeny, tiny college town of Chapel Hill where everyone knew your business before you did was truly liberating.

Regardless of the 8 million people who live here, you do find a familiar set of faces, especially because we tread a repetitive path most days. I remember Joe from my years of practicing yoga religiously. I'd travel into Manhattan from my high school in Brooklyn, get off at the F stop on 14th street, and walk over towards Union Square where I'd go to a class either at OM or The Shala. I must have passed Joe a million times, and I was always tempted to buy his vegetable peeler--it looked so convincing as he sat surrounded by the skins of many veggies--but I was always rushing to get my om on.

As big as this town is, it's the familiar faces like Joe's that give it consistency and provide a common thread of conversation for all of us. These individuals seem trivial, but I think they ground a lot of us in a subtle way.

Whatever Joe believed in, I hope he's at peace wherever he is now.