Aaron D. Neufeld- Blog #23

BLOG POST #23- Crazy Lady at Jamaica

Every Monday morning, I take the LIRR back to Stony Brook for school where I dorm during the week. I take a train out of the neighborhood where I live in Nassau County and transfer at Jamaica station where I have about a twenty-minute layover. During this time, I usually head into the Airtrain terminal where many people like to buy a coffee and mull around in the heated terminal while they await their train’s arrival. Every week I notice one homeless woman who comes through the terminal at the same time. This black woman seems to be in her fifties. She carries around a lot of luggage. She is constantly talking to herself, or perhaps to an invisible audience. She likes to lecture and talk about the things she’s seen going on locally, amongst other things.

I always wondered how she’d become homeless and how she’d become crazy to the point of speaking into the air without hearing responses. I felt badly for her. Near my own house there is a homeless man who lives in the park. He too, speaks to himself. Feeling poorly for him last summer, I approached the bench he likes to sit on and I sat down next to him. I tried talking to him but he ignored me and then spoke some more into the air. A close friend of mine once tried dropping some food off for him but the man simply walked away. The guy was out of his mind; literally. I assumed no different for this woman. But then I saw her carrying on a normal conversation when another homeless man arrived to the terminal. He walked over to say hello and the two began a lively conversation. They were speaking clearly and most certainly to each other. I was quite surprised. I have since seen her speak with several police officers who simply talk to her for conversation and do not harass her for loitering.

However, when she isn’t talking to people, she is talking to herself or an invisible audience. I can’t quite figure it out. What is the fine line between sanity and insanity? What is she thinking when she talks to nobody? Is she simply thinking aloud to keep herself entertained or is she actually carrying on a conversation with the man who wasn’t there?