Tom O' Bedlam

 Tom O'Bedlam. Coming home tonight there was a guy -I'll call Tom- screaming 'somebody help me!! I need help!!' Screaming at the top of his lungs. Most ppl were on their phones...heading back to our places of residences. If you didn't know any better it would seem like a typical scene of how NYC can be such a cruel city. Except, Tom is a regular on the L train. I've seen Tom for years and years he's always screaming at decibel level 10. Regulars are hardened to it, while newcomers react. Newbies are both horrified by NYCers indifference and moved by Tom's pleas. So the newcomers give money while looking around at us with disgust 'shame on you' until they eventually see Tom's act again and then again and by the 20th time...it feels like a performance. Down to his words and delivery method where you can recognize some of the regulars and say 'oh that's screaming Tom...that's the lady with the baby strapped around her chest.'

 In Victorian times they were called Poor Tom's or Tom O'Bedlams...beggars who would pretend to be mad, scream, get up in people's faces, make crowds very uncomfortable. Mary of Bethlehem  was a mental asylum and the hospital's name got shortened to bedlam. So the phrase 'bedlam' became associated with chaotic, wild, scary behavior. 

A year ago I entered the subway and saw a guy seizing on the floor. OMG, I walked toward him until other passengers looked at me and shook their heads. I paused and watched him seize again and again until I realized...he was looking at me. And at every stop he would go into a seizing gesture, look at ppl, stop...and then seize. Some ppl would react until they noticed this felt off. At the last stop, the Seizing Man stood up, took his stuff, and walked up 3 flights of stairs to another subway to continue his routine. 

I thought it was interesting. Some ppl will scream and holler and create bedlam.