It's July 4th weekend in New York City. I had spent the last 40 hours doing what I loved, taking photos, shooting video, and going out with friends. The final 5 hours specifically leading up to the taking of this photo were especially fun, and now it was 3:30 AM and I had a train in less than three hours up to New England to celebrate the holiday with my family. Naturally, I had planned the night accordingly, not booking a hotel to fully commit to being an east coast degenerate the whole night, and now it was time for the closing act. As my friends went home, I figured I would go sit in Times Square for a bit with some street food, take a seat, and appreciate the sights and sounds of "The Crossroads of The World".

Sat down next to me was the man pictured above, two generations separated yet scrolling through his phone with a beer in his hand as if he was another 23 year old having a night out in Manhattan. On the other side of me was my bag, and in my hand my camera, which the man noticed almost immediately, and we began to chat about what I liked about photography, a topic never overdone for me. He offered me a beer, and we drank together and for a moment I had the thought: "What if this is me in the future, two generations later and still in awe of the ridiculousness of New York, happy to sit, relax, and drink to the absurdism of the millions of people interacting around us every day." I thought, "Why do I connect better and feel understood better by a man 50 years older than me than almost everyone my generation I meet?". My slightly intoxicated brain had one explanation, it was me from the future. However, life had a couple more curveballs to throw at me to confirm this thought.

Unfortunately for the old man and I, this would not be the last time seeing this cop. About ten minutes past, and before we knew it three officers, including the showstopper himself turned up to tell us to spill our beers out or get arrested (keep in mind at this point it was 4 AM and our beers were pretty much done at this point). I looked at the old man, who smiled at me then proceeded to pour the rest of his beer on the ground right in front of the cop, in which I followed. The police left, and I turned to the man saying, "hey I'm sorry about wasting your beer, thank you anyways." Immediately, he reaches into his bag and pulls out another saying, "let's share this one this time so we can drink it faster". To this day, even with all of my New York trips this is easily my favorite Times Square and Manhattan interaction. I felt a great yet bittersweet thread held us together, and could tell we both knew that our presence in that moment had been of great benefit to both of us to see the irony and craziness of the situation ahead. Before I left, I asked the man if I could take his photo, and his middle finger will forever be the message that not only him, but I will have for the people who do their jobs not for the job, but for the power that comes with it.