As far as I know, Timothy “Speed” Levitch is the only tour guide in history to have ever had a full-length documentary filmed about him.

Since the early 1990’s, Speed has been taking tourists around New York City imparting on them everything from deeply philosophical rants about the grid plan to what the duration and frequency of a “honk” could say about a driver’s intentions.

In Rob Walker’s book, The Art of Noticing, Speed makes the distinction between “commuting” and “cruising”.

Commuting is when the traveler’s urge to get to a destination becomes more important than anything else.

In the words of Speed…

“

Commuting, active verb, is to travel along with the assumption that every godforsaken human being currently on this planet is in my way.

”

Cruising, on the other hand, is the immediate presence in and appreciation of the beauty around you.

All of us have been conditioned by society to commute rather than cruise. We speed to our destination. We ask for the bill before the meal is over. We rush through the airport without any sort of consideration of the travelers around us. We leap-frog elderly walkers hobbling down the street without so much as a smile, a wave or a “have a good day”.

This behavior doesn’t make us bad people. It just makes us impatient people.

But, the problem with being an impatient person, is that it’s very difficult to be impatient and happy at the same time.

And so we must be aware of the moments when our need to get to a destination gets in the way of us appreciating the beauty around us, because it’s in this beauty where happiness is enjoyed and creativity has the chance to spread out and run wild.

By Cole Schafer.

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