The epitome of relaxation and inner joy can be found on Saint-Catherine Street in
downtown Montreal, as well as in the malls and stores to which it is host. Like New York
City, Montreal is a large metropolis. Its downtown is no exception – scores of places in
which one can binge on purchase what one’s heart contents, plenty of people and cars and
noise and food and art and music and culture to satisfy any and all tastes. From the
cigarette smoke you smell when you pass the homeless gentleman who has made the
corner of Peel St. home, to the fresh ground coffee emitting from a quaint little romantic
cafe, and business and almost everything you would find in Manhattan. Well, almost
everything. You see, New York is great, it really is. But people walk around – better yet,
run around – under some false pretense that they have somewhere incredibly more
important to be than wherever their feet happen to be right now, be it across town or two
feet from where they currently stand. Everyone is busy, running and yelling and screaming
to get somewhere as quickly as possible. Sure, people have to rush, on occasion. But not
everybody, always. Downtown Montreal is like New York. Very much like New York. But
people don’t have somewhere so much more important than where they are. They take the
time to appreciate every step.
Quietly tucked away behind the thick shrubs adjacent to the city of Beit Shemesh is my
