smitten

I'm a mixed up person, delighted to spend weeks at a lonely cottage on a lake, fresh and close to nature, yet likewise, give me a large city and it's like Christmas morning! Over the years I have made my way through many cities in many different countries. I'm fond of many things; quaint cafes, culture compressed, large museums, dilapidated neighborhoods, fashion, good newspapers, advertising, people from all over the globe, and large universities.... but more than anything my heart skips a beat when it comes to public transportation. Yes, I know... am I insane? Sure.

If possible I hope to never own a car again. I've spent many years of my adulthood commuting to work, school, church, the grocery, and back home with myself, my music, my thoughts.... my individualism.

To ride the subway, tube, underground, or el from one end of a city to the other is the best gift ever. Public transport reminds me that I'm human, a part of this massive lovely world. When I begin to get too comfortable, too self focused in my mind with my ideas, too safe in my part of the city, seeing my friends, I head out to the nearest subway.

And it's in that subway where I love being human again. To love people. I breath in body odor, smile at grafitti, follow the little subway map above my head, notice nice shoes, catch a falling child as the train breaks suddenly, exchange greetings with my seat neighbor, and mostly simply sit and live. Even in total silence there's connection as people all collectively read the free city newspapers or listen to their ipod soundtrack.

I especially enjoy underground transport that zooms us from west to east right beneath the nose of the city in the midst of her happy noisy day. The subway also reminds me that we're all the same; rich, poor, every race and ethnic group, woman, man, child, we all sit as one being, one presence. Exiting up the escalator into the world, the magic wanes..... yet I walk, remembering my human family deep below the earth traveling beneath my happy feet.


(photos: on the london tube, chicago el, el platform, tube escalator)