Palm Trees and Life

The story of Mickey and Robert was my favorite that I found while browsing the Humans of New York website. It was a powerful seven-part story of love, friendship, loss, and life. This story is so deep and personal. It is a story of the friendship between Robert and Mickey, how they helped each other and how they are impacted by the loss of the people they cared for. We see multiple transformations—Robert finds a friend and support in Mickey, Mickey finds a friend willing to help him with his dreams of being an artist. They impact each other’s lives and help each other carry on.

One thing that amazes me (one out of a hundred in this story alone) is the way that it starts. The first four lines, with the medium and the man with grey hair, are such a beautiful way to begin, it sets the tone for the entirety of the story—painting it with grief and love. Within the seven parts, we see so much of who Mickey was and also pieces of who Michael was through the eyes of Robert. Robert does not just say “he was kind, he was a good artist,” he tells us through smaller stories that make up the whole; the story of Mickey driving him to the hospital and caring for him after, the story of the murals on the wall and the art shows. The visuals of the story add to this; we are not just viewing photos from Robert’s perspective, we are seeing photos of Mickey and Robert together and the paintings Mickey created. I also think the photos of Robert help bring the reader a connection to him, these are seemingly candid portraits of Robert caught in the middle of conversation. In the final part, he stands facing the camera, eyes directly staring into the lens, almost as if to communicate: “This is me. This was the story of the person I deeply cared for. Carry this message forward.” I thought it was a gorgeous shot for that reason. 

This story elicits strong emotions—the way that it is told across seven parts makes the reader forge a connection with Robert and to Mickey. We can so clearly see the connection these two had, and the connection Mickey had with Michael. This carries through all the way to the end. It is a painful story, the loss of Michael and then Mickey. It is almost a story of paying forward kindness and connection. That truly is the beauty of Humans of New York posts—they are not just static writings, they take on a life within the reader and those emotions and ideas impact their lives from then on. You read about the rapid timeframe in which Mickey lost Michael and then we see that Robert loses Mickey much too soon as well. This is a lesson on caring so deeply for others, because yes, you might get hurt, but that is the entire point of life. There are so many of these lessons tied into Humans of New York pieces.