So there’s this Buddhist meditation called “the kindness of others”; it urges us to see that whenever we get pissed at other people, whenever we’re impatient, righteous, ungrateful, whatever, it’s because we’re not seeing reality as it truly exists. We are feeling like we are the end and the beginning, we are the full circle. We don’t need anyone thank you very much.
No say the Buddhists. Everything we do is the byproduct of things done for us by others. We’ve been the recipients of many, many kind acts from the time our dads’ durable little cell hit our moms’ welcoming eggs. So be humble and grateful—you’d be nowhere without others. Even the seeming slights and injustices, ostensibly sprung from malevolent intentions of others, often serve to make us stronger in the end.
Thursday night, the kindness of others was very evident at Lucid NYC. From friends and volunteers, presenters and guests, the whole thing was just bitching. I was remiss to start the presentations because people were having such a good time (as it was, the action didn’t start until 8:30).
While I’d like to dedicate much more attention to each and every person there, I’m going to have to settle on a quick overview of the people who made it happen:
• Dominic Frasca for his amazing performance and for housing the event. If you don’t know him, check him out.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2BOApUvFpw]
• Josh Shabtai for his great presentation on “Easter Eggs”—nerds, as he so profoundly purported, can show you many things.
• Cory Kahaney for her illuminating talk on the chauvinistic poison affecting the comedy world and the world at large.
• Doug Jaeger from thehappycorp and LVHD—one of the few men who can make diseases funny.
• Jenny Sabin from Cabin Studio and UPenn, whose mind-boggling presentation on networks of information and architectural design was as intellectually humbling as it was interesting.
• Scott Elliot from 590 Films for his support filming (videos coming soon).
• Jaysen Medhurst, Fernando Rizo, Marshall Swatt, Gaurav Mishra and Trader Joe for general support and guidance.
• Shelley Tanner, girlfriend and registrar extraordinaire. She also teaches a great meditation class in the Wall St. Area Wednesday nights.
Finally, everyone who showed up, braving cold and uncertainty of what the hell Lucid NYC is. There were a lot of new faces and a great vibe, all of which renewed my resolve to create something deeper and more lasting from a night out than a hangover and a number scrawled on a Starbucks receipt.
I’ll be working on some smaller stuff in December, and surely back no later than January. Please email me dfriedlander [at] lucidnyc.com, if you’re not on the mailing list, and/or sign up for the Facebook group to keep in the loop on a more minute level (I try to be sparing with the emails), or if you have some presenter ideas. Until then, be good, keep connected.
David