For the past 15 years, Paul has made regular sojourns to Washington Square Park (WSP) to commune with the pigeons and other little creatures in the park. When Paul first began these regular visits, he resided on Carmine Street, where he found that the squirrels and birds were befriending him through an open window.
Paul has gone through a difficult transition from being an owner of a Persian rug store, to being out of business and in involuntary retirement. The friendly birds and squirrels are therapeutic for him. When he sits feeding the wild ones in the park, meditative thoughts sometimes come to him.
He could have taken his landlord and others to court for their treatment of him, but the message he gets from his moments with the birds is “Don’t go to court; don’t worry about anything.”
Paul now commutes to WSP from his home in Queens, and when he can’t get into Manhattan, he misses his bird friends.
Paul gives many people a surprise of joy, by letting them feed the birds from their own hands under his gentle guidance, along with a little information about pigeon life.
