RESPECT AND REVERENCE

Making sure to abide by all rules of The 100 Carry Project and keep Janie's feet from touching the ground, she and Armen take a break downtown on Congress Street during the start of their trek back towards Munjoy Hill. "I was initially thinking that I was going to take more of a passive role, that it was just going to be simpler and easier than it was and that I could just be daydreaming about the experience instead of just being in it," Janie says. "It required a lot more of me, more involvement, and more of an exchange between us." Armen explains further, "There is a way to connect with somebody intimately, even a stranger, without getting all tangled up and confused, and it’s through the body, meaning that contact, touch, doesn’t have to be perverse...That you can touch somebody and make contact with somebody physically, emotionally, mentally and it can be clean." With the act of carrying, Armen clarifies, "There is that intimacy and openness, but there’s also respect and reverence."