Trash cans are frames, not containers.

Most writers know the importance of verisimilitude – of evoking the five senses in order to bring a scene or character to life. The smell of anti-freeze. The touch of dried leaves. The taste of another’s sweat. The sag of overcooked spaghetti. The sound of a broken wind chime. God, writers are told, is in the details. Focus on the details, and the people and places will tell you who they are.

New York is a massive, cacophonous, and hectic city. It’s easy to miss the details of our lives in NYC as enormous buildings smother the sun and anonymous crowds swirl by.

For most people this picture is of a common trash can. But for the wack jobs who read, write, and enjoy Hnyc, this is so, SO much more than a trash can. It is us: New Yorkers. And it is New York City – literally, metaphorically, and everything in between.

Take, for example, the glob of gum so deliberately stuck on the rim (right side) of the trash can. Whose mouth did it come from? Where were they going? How long had they been chewing it? Why? To hide the smell of alcohol? To deal with stress? To enjoy the flavor?

Or how about that random penny on the white paper plate? In this economy every penny – yes, even, or especially in NYC – counts, so why would a person place a single penny in a public trash can? Weird. Was it the gum person? Notice how the penny is fading into the shadow framed by the low angle of a late afternoon November sun. Sun on trash. Beautiful.

Focusing on details, of course, can raise more questions than it answers. But life is complex. And so is the trash we throw away.