AMTRAK
Train Traveling Is Nice
Lately too busy for even visit my usual reads while preparing the dreaded moving one more time, I will not wait more to write this post since I might forget or be called by a different subject. I recently used AMTRAK to travel back to Columbia, SC. from Miami, FL. Despite the cold temperature outside it was surely a nice trip, spoiled only by the fact the floor's heat was turned on. It drove everybody crazy to the point of loudly protesting and requesting the presence of the Engineer several times. Finally we won.
But this is not at all what motivates this post. It's the people. For some reason people traveling in the train communicates, becomes more human, interact with each other in a way I haven't noticed for a long time and certainly not in the big cities. Reserved by nature and not prom to start a conversation with my seat's neighbor, I engage immediately when they do. As of this trip I shared some rich cultural moments with a Haitian lady heading to Tampa to visit his son who currently attends college there. To my delight she was a current source of fresh information about the situation in her country - where she resides -. She speaks Four languages, Latin being one of them and it is a thoroughly educated person.
My next companion was a black man in route to visit her daughter in Orlando, being both girl's fathers we stroke a conversation around family and the never-ending worries we live day by day in that very particular role of upbringing daddy's girl. A group of people around caught my attention, one young white man, two middle-aged white men, two middle-aged black women and a 30 plus black man. All of them sharing, laughing, talking. Having met in this same train cart, they moved to and from the lounge cart, where they also shared drinks and food. All this time there was a huge absence, palpable, evident. Politics. Nobody mentioned race, nobody felt offended.
Was Amtrak a catalytic for this? Or is it simply that when politicians and specials interests are not meddling in our regular behavior, human nature takes the "natural" course and erase those barriers others keep bringing back? These are the questions I pondered during my 16 hours trip. I do not know the answers, but it seems to me Amtrak is up to some good here.
