On Public Transportation

My car and cell phone both broke this week. Worse yet, I made the decision to read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Protip: If you ever want to feel good about things, don't read The Road. The Road will destroy you. The Road will energize your soul in the same way chugging vinegar will energize your face. So yeah, my timing couldn't have been worse on that one.

Anyway, my car broke down, so one day I decided to walk home from school with a friend. It's a long, 3+ hour walk, somewhat mitigated by a ~30 minute bus ride.

While on the bus, I realized that I enjoyed public transportation. Not just taking public transit, although I enjoy that, too (an enjoyment which I expect would fade if I were to do it more often) -- I enjoy the idea of public transit. I like the possibility a random, spontaneous connection can form between two people, driven only by the fact that both of them want to be in a different place than they were before. It's an aggregate of human stories and experience, packed to near-maximum density. The reality, of course, is not nearly as idyllic as this description, but there's some element of my idealized view in every bus and subway.

Moreover, a public transportation seems to me to be exactly the kind of thing government is for. I get the same feeling whenever I walk into a public library. For a moment, I lose all of my fury and indignation at the stupidity of Congress* and marvel at the capacity for humans to do cool things. These government-made resources provide everyone with an opportunity to learn, to experience new opportunity. There is no place I would rather spend my tax dollars.

My friend and I discussed politics on the bus, because apparently life is too long as it is. Despite the fact that our conversation seemed to be an oddity among the usually silent travelers, we appeared to generate some interest. A young woman talked with us a bit, showing genuine investment in what we were discussing. I learned how to stand on the bus and not throw myself into someone else. (I confirmed Newton's laws anecdotally in the process.)

In all, it was a cool experience. I might even dub it an "adventure". Not in the normal sense, but in the sense that I liked it a lot, and it was out of the ordinary.

Go read The Road, because if you haven't, you don't know what a book can do to you yet.

-Me

My favorite Mark Twain quote: "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a Congressman -- but I repeat myself."