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Do What You Can (Part Two)

**UPDATE**

I should note that I had typed up that last post immediately following my encounter with the young man mentioned below. After I had briefly checked for any spelling and grammatical errors, I posted the blog entry from my phone, and went back to listening to some music, catching up on my 'Words With Friends' games, etc. As I mentioned earlier, this trip required taking two trains: the first one from New York City to a town on Long Island, and then the second train which I and the rest of the passengers boarded a few short minutes after that train had dropped us off, to take us the rest of the way to our respective towns. When I got off the train at my station, which happened to be about 2 hours after my rather brief encounter with my disgruntled fellow passenger, I wasn't really paying much attention to the other people around me. All of a sudden, I was forced to stop walking because I abruptly noticed that there was someone not only standing right in front of me, but also looking straight at me. It was the guy from the first train. I honestly had no idea what he was going to do or say (if anything) but I looked up from coiling up my headphones chord and saw that his fist was pointed right at me. I'll admit, this took me a second to evaluate what was happening, especially since when I had first met this stranger, he was anything but pleased to be in my company. He then made it clear that I was "leaving him hanging," so to speak, and I realized what was really going on.

He must have kept thinking about our verbal exchange, our discussion about good and bad, the idea that things have a funny way of working out for the best, and so on, the entire rest of the trip. I slowly lifted up my right arm, made a fist, and connected my hand with his. We each had a ring on the same finger of the hand we had raised, and they lightly pinged together.. an audible connection between myself and this stranger who just 2 hours before, had wanted nothing to do with me. Proof of our casual but deliberate recognition of one another and the surprisingly powerful exchange that had taken place between he and I. He looked me in the eyes, nodded his head with a look of closure and respect, and we headed our separate directions. When I first wrote about this young guy and my interaction with him, I spoke of how these seemingly mundane connections can sometimes truly speak volumes to one or both of the parties involved. This theory may not always prove to be true, but in this case, it was made clear that we both left having gained something from one another. So.. do what you can, if an opportunity presents itself; and don't do it as part of a hunt for personal gain, just wait and see what happens in your unique situation. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Do What You Can

As I write this, I'm sitting on a train, about half-way through a two hour trip. The subway I had planned to take to get to this train had been unexpectedly shut down, so I decided to get off at the closest East Side station and walk the rest of the way to the West Side. I knew this would really be pushing it for time, but I just planned to do my best to catch my train.

Armed with a well-practiced New York speed-walk, and the muscle memory to fly through the touchscreen ticket purchase, I made it onto the train just in time. Finding a seat that was vacant and wasn't between a family of four or made impossible by someone that's morbidly obese took a few minutes but I finally found my own side of a four-seater, facing another guy about my age who sat in the seat diagonal from me.

As I sat down, I offered a little smirk and one of those casual "half-nods." A few beats later I heard a muffled "ugh.. seriously..?" Not knowing what he was referring to, I made eye-contact and simply responded "what..?" He stared at me for a good twenty seconds, wide-eyed, and then finally motioning to my ticket, saying "I'm stuck wit' yo' ass the whole ride man.." Caught a bit off-guard, I wasn't quite sure what to say. "Well, this train only goes half the way there, then there's a connecting train anyway. This train's really crowded too, we're both lucky to have this amount of room."

I honestly think he expected me to just shrug out of defeat or fear (or both) and get up without a word, but I didn't see him as a threat.. maybe just a misguided young guy with a relative lack of a vocal filter. He took what felt like three minutes to take in what I had just said, and then responded "Yeah man.. you know what? You're right. I've just had a really bad day. It's all good, I do have plenty of room. Sometimes I just question the universe and I wonder if there's any reason for days like that, you know?" Now this dialogue might sound too whimsical to be a true account, but I promise you, that really is what he said, and it happened only minutes ago so there's no necessity for artistic licensing.

I processed this unexpected reaction of his, and the best I could come up with was "It's alright, I understand where you're coming from. But if you understand that your day went the way it did for a reason, then you'll understand that maybe you needed those experiences. Sometimes something seems completely mundane but it happens for a very particular reason, in terms of your overall timeline."

I guess the biggest reason why I decided to post this for all of you was because it made me think about the whole "strangers on a train" phenomena (not so much in regards to the film, although the original black and white version is worth watching.) In a city of 8 million people, it only takes a one-time exchange with a complete stranger to alter your mindset. It'd be unrealistic for me to say that 100% of these interactions are beneficial, but having been on both sides of the spectrum, I strongly believe in the power and meaning of chance.

The experience that comes to mind right now was when I was in the hospital a few months back and this Emergency Room Nurse that wasn't even assigned to me just made eye-contact with me and decided to walk over to my bed. We ended up talking for about fifteen minutes and we talked about things that really stuck with me.. about life, love, friendship, family, and New York City. About 2-3 weeks ago, I passed her on the street and her eyes lit up with clouded but certain recognition. I gave her a nod and a smile and disappeared back into the crowd, but I'll never forget what she told me. That, my friends, is a story for another day.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone