Without distracting from everyone's worries about the U.S. bombing Iran (won't be today), I want to report a scene from my window.Two of New York's Finest sanitation workers were collecting the debris (garbage, bottles, paper) across the street. I watched as two beefy but graceful guys lifted with ease tons of stuff and heaved it into the maw of their giant truck; some of it so heavy each had to pick up one end to lift it. Grunts and groans? Absolutely not; they were synchronized, deft on their feet, quick and graceful in their shoulder movements and arm swings. They reminded me of dancers, Alvin Ailey? Mark Morris? Mummenschanz? Their departure--a swing into the cab of the truck--also synchronized. The Rockettes?

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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