Everyone has heard of Broadway. The famed place where you have all those theaters and shows, where people who want to be stars, or who are stars, go to shine and showcase their talents. But that's not the Broadway I know, or want to talk about.
There's also a Broadway in Brooklyn, a far more interesting place, at least to me. This Broadway is a collection of small shops, restaurants, newspaper kiosks, beauty parlors, senior citizen center, bazaars, flea and farmer's markets, and so many other colorful entities. They are run by people from many different parts of the world, who amazingly, get along and help each other. There exists a camaraderie among them that is refreshing to see, in a world too often divided along so many ideological lines.
Walking from one corner of a block to the other, you can get goods and foods from people from the Caribbean, Middle East, Europe, Africa, America, the Orient and everything else in between. To me it's a virtual testament that deep down, we can put our differences aside, and focus on the matters we all share in common.
After all, we all want to live well, have a nice place to call home, take care of our families, and work in something that makes us feel that we are contributing something to society, and get rewarded for it. As for the other Broadway, the one in Manhattan, where the fantasy world is played out in songs, dance and drama, it's nice....but it doesn't surpass in beauty and grandeur Brooklyn's Broadway. Where the real world is playing a better harmony.
