Train Rider

I sit there waiting for the iron box that takes me to NYC every day. Before you even see it, the hissing tracks announce its arrival; then the whistle. There is that smell when the train hits the breaks. Metal against metal, friction, hot air. The train is finally here.
I have learned to live with it, but I have not learned to love the ride. Thousands of people sitting next to each other, and yet we are all invisible. For some, the train is a place to take that last nap before reaching destination. Others use it as an office, talking on their cell phones, e-mailing from their computers. Others just love listening to music and disconnecting themselves from the world.
Sometimes I work, sometimes I sleep. But most of the time I think... and think. I think about the people that ride with me, where are they going. I think about the birds I see outside, swimming on that nasty water poluted with the residues of civilization. I think of how a country can deploy troops so fast when fighting a war on the other side of the planet, but takes so long to help the victims of a natural dissaster in its own backyard.
But mostly, in a good day when the sky is clear, I see the sunset reflected on the Raritan River, announcing that I am minutes away from home.

Do we really have to blame it on someone?

After seen the aftermath of Katrina several things come to my mind. The first one is how helpless are we against the true power of nature, which less than a year ago displayed its power with the tsunami that wiped out parts of Indonesia, Thailand and other parts of the world, killing tenths of thousands.
The second thing that comes to my mind, and is less obvious, is the state of violence that arises from such situation. Even those who are normally kind people suddenly become raging individuals when desperate for food or water. It gives me a new perspective of why in poor countries where harsh conditions are the everyday life, people don't seem as nice as the people we normally see around us. It proves one more time that we might be at the top of the evolution stairway (I have my doubts about that...) but we are animals after all, with instincts that surface when nature calls.
Last but not least, our necessity to find a guilty soul to blame this on. Yes, there were warnings that the government didn't pay attention to. Guilty!. Yes, bureaucracy held rescue outside the disaster limits and help didn't reach those in need for six days. Guilty! These are awful things that should never happen, but we seem to find relief on a false sense of justice when we point our fingers at someone. Technology can predict the speed of a hurricane using computer models. It can also predict if a building will resist an earthquake. But no matter how advanced our computers, they can't predict if two thousand people running down the street in panic will turn right or left, or if the new neighbor Mr. Jones, thinks his ten year old dog is more important than his pain in the butt neighbor.

Emotional Addiction

Would we ever break free from that emotional immaturity that makes us think that tears, rage and sadness are synonyms of sensibility? Perhaps we will never do, mostly because it is part of our human relationships, at least on this side of the world.
But is it truly a necessity, or just an addiction? Other cultures seem to be free of it. It might be that we are educated to be emotionally immature. From our baby years to our TV junkie days, we are programmed by teachers, parents and friends to be emotionally dependent. The sad thing is: we believe this is the way things should be, and anything outside of that circle becomes an outcast.