Some time ago, I was standing in the Metro (in Washington, DC) having just got off the train at my stop. My stop, let me just point out, is one of those where half the world gets out. There’s only one way to avoid a wait to get on to the escalator and that’s to be in the car stopped nearest the escalator. What many people do as a result, is to get in to the first car of the train. Well some days that works and some days it doesn’t. So anyhow, yesterday I get out of the train and sure enough, the first car (in which I had been riding) was parked beyond the escalator. Chups. By the time I’d walked back to the escalator the world was there before me.
Here’s where the story becomes an “I wonder” moment. As I’m standing there I notice a strange (but really not so strange) thing happening. People are voluntarily stepping aside for each other. Wait a minute. This is America, where everybody’s business and urgent need are more important or urgent than yours, but yet, here we are in the train station taking each other into consideration. What a thing! A kind of routine develops where the person next in line for the escalator allows one person to step in front of them. And so we go, one from the line, one from the crowd waiting to join the line. I think that one day, I’m going to just stand back and watch the whole thing unfold. It was almost touching to see people taking care of each other in that simple way. Listen, this is a place where even in church people will exchange the Peace and not look you in the eye, so I am well within my rights to be touched by something as simple as this.
Anyhow, here’s how this relates to my beloved Trinidad. Several years ago when I was at UWI, I was standing in line for the bus to Tunapuna. I was alone in the line and doing my penance waiting for the bus. If you've ever taken that bus, you know what I'm talking about! Now that I know about other realities I can say that it really wasn’t penance after all. I mean, it wasn’t cold, there was no snow and ice on the ground so though I complained about the endless waiting (bus schedule, what schedule?), it was no big deal. Imagine my surprise, amazement, horror, when a woman joined me in the queue and overtook me! Did I mention that I was alone in the line? Yeah I did, didn’t I? Need I also mention that the lady made it a grand total of two whole people waiting for the bus? Like I could fill up a whole bus by myself. Chups!
So I wonder….. I wonder whether she’s somehow managing to consider another person’s needs where she is now? And I wonder whether as a Nation, we are managing to line up and respect others’ time and needs as yet? I don’t know the answers, I'm not even guessing, I'm just wondering.
Just to belabor the point a bit more, I generally philosophize that everything is one thing and that if you could just get the one thing that you need to get, life would be nice. Sometimes I think the one thing we need to get in Trinidad is consideration. If I could just consider you and you, me; if the Government could just consider my need for health care for example, people wouldn’t need to t’ief or kidnap, because on a societal level individual security needs (per Abraham Maslow) would have been met. Sometimes the people who t’ief ent bad, they just desperate. So like I said, I just wondering nuh.
Mindles ramblings of a useless mind.
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