I took
the 1 train this morning with expectations of arriving ten minutes early. I was in an excellent mood. I had gone to sleep and woken up thanking the
world for the blessings it had bestowed upon me, although I was mostly thinking
about the bare necessities: being here, being healthy, being able to smell,
touch, taste, hear and see, being free, and living in a world that often makes
me happy.
After a
smooth beginning the train stalled, and then went slowly, and then stopped… for
fifteen minutes. The 2 had brake
problems, so they were transferring the 2-3 trains to the 1 track. So we had to go very slowly, and then the
train stopped again. I was feeling very
cool about the situation, but I was also very excited to go to class. Being a little late is alright because the
students usually wander in a few minutes late too, since it’s their first class
of the morning. But I’m the teacher, and
being 15 minutes late would not be a good thing. But I couldn’t do anything about it at
all. I could have left earlier, but that
didn’t matter at the moment. All I could
do was transform my perspective to adjust to the realities and accept that the
train was going to take a little longer.
I began to get bothered by the trains from the other tracks holding us
back, since it wasn’t our problem and we were ready to go. But I also had to remember that I wasn’t the
only star of the show, and that everyone else on the train also had someplace
they needed to go. As they say, these
things happen.
The
upshot was that when we finally arrived at our destination, I had the
motivation to sprint the remaining five blocks to work, which made me feel very
alive. The students were laughing and
accepted my explanation. A smiling man
in the front row was wearing a Beatles shirt and said he knew my pain because he
had also been on the 1 train.
That was the morning. In the evening I finished at 10 pm, and the 1 train came as soon as I arrived at the station, the start of a smooth ride home.
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