Love, the universal Language

New York City, is the melting pot of all kinds of people from different places who have come with different cultures, traditions and religions. 

With no one dominant religion here in NYC, it is not often evident to spot religious places, or art in and around the streets.

On occasion however, you will find people in the subways or at the bus stops preaching to you about religion, often christianity. New york is one of the busiest places in the world, and often no one really has time to listen to the preachings on the street or subway or go to a place of worship.

The architecture in new york has a very similar look to it, it can be at times difficult to spot out a religious temple, or religious art.

The city itself is made as if in a way to accommodate everyone, and by doing so, giving the same tone to everything in order not to dominate or suffocate and throw influence of a certain religion or belief on to individuals.

While this can be looked at as a positive thing, it can as well distance those who do believe, further from what they did believe, as they have no physical architecture to remind them of their religion as they run about the city.

With that said, New York City, is well known as a city of art, and artists. Many statues up and about the city and often is an source of relief and reflection to the busy lives that we lead as New Yorkers.

The art structures around us, and art in general, inspire individual interpretation, to those who encounter them. To all who do, to each his or her interpretation is naturally different.

However, no matter how different humans be them residing in New York, or elsewhere in the world, as humans, we share fundamental things such as necessities to live like water food and shelter but also feelings like love.

And even though, not all of us have an equal share of the above, we all can relate to them at our own levels. 

Similarly, though New York city has a wide spread of religions and people with different beliefs, some artifacts can evoke similar emotions and interpretations across the board.

I came across this particular statue, and without reading about it, I thought about what it represented. While some may say it represents  affection, friendship, companion and truly so, all this can be under the umbrella of Love itself.

Lovers by Minako Yoshino

Love is a universal language to all, and no matter what religion. It is one of the few things that us as humans together can relate to and understand. In each religion is a lesson of love and it’s importance, and though New York is diverse in its ways of people, their background, culture, traditions and religion- Love is something that we can all understand, and therefore this artifact that is a representation of love, in an unreligious context and place- still carries its weight and can evoke a human emotion and feeling to those who see it and experience its energy.