Blogging Miles Around the Metro

Every morning, fresh-smelling people with mouths set in determined lines pour onto the sidewalks and flow into every available means of transportation to get to places they have to be in–to punch in their timecards, sit at their workstations and clickety-clack away before their computer screens. I used to hang with this crowd, and each day clamber into the white FX (usually an airconditioned van), where for the next hour I would be in the company of literally and figuratively, fellow dreamers. It would be early in the morning, so yes a bunch of us would try to sit back and catch up on sleep (one of the joys of public transportation), while the others would gaze blankly ahead. Dreaming, in their own way I would imagine, of things they want to do, lives they want to live, and how the heck they’re gonna be spending their paychecks come payday.

One time I was seated in one of those FXes where you sit facing each other, and in the middle of the trip, opened my eyes. There’s a surreal feeling when you open your eyes and realize that everyone around you is seemingly in a trance. I could just hear the cynic in me smirk, and say that we’re all zombies to the grind, anyway. But you can imagine everyone else seated in that vehicle, eyes closed, as if in meditation, charging up for the day ahead. By opening my eyes and blinking at everyone else with their eyes shut, I felt as if I was violating some sort of dream-sanctity. Maybe there’s something in the morning air that makes aspirations so crisp and tangible. Maybe it’s the silence giving way to the hum of the FX’s engine. Maybe I’m romanticizing too much the dreams and motives of those who hie off to work each day. But dreams, be they of a better future, or of being able to pay for your own tissue and beer, are aspirations that keep us alive nonetheless.

Popularity: 37% [?]