There's an unconventional place in the world where a person can find a sense of unity while experiencing individuality and meditation. It's a place wildly routine across the globe. That place is in public transportation.
It is an asset I continually find myself missing in my life. It's not the convenience of getting from point A to point B worthy of memory, I crave the normalcy of the moment, the feeling that comes from traveling with strangers.
Whether it's bus, train or fast rail subway, when you want to get somewhere in a city, you take the public transportation.
You approach the entrance to the subway with a hundred other people moving toward an escalator and ride a hundred feet underground to a station which divides everyone down different paths like a fork in the road.
You wait for the subway train in a secluded place.
There are various people in site: a well-dressed man, you admire his profit; a blind woman, you admire her adaptability; a homeless man, you admire his struggle; a mother with her babies, you admire her commitment; a politician reading the paper, you admire his dedication, etc. Anyone imaginable can be found waiting at a station, even a girl from Iowa.
The train roars in through a small tunnel so perfectly designed. In a matter of 60 seconds hundreds exit the train like a flock of sheep and hundreds enter like grain into a bin. There, in the mist of absolute range, everyone is equal.
When I was younger, I took the Greyhound bus to Arkansas to see my grandma and I met an Amish man named Joseph. He was lively and soft spoken and he was going to a hospital to visit his wife and child. I found public transportation diverse.
When I was in Paris, I took the Metro, which is just like the subway in Washington or New York, only dirtier, to Pere Lachaise Cemetery to see Jim Morrison's grave. I met a retired German engineer named Marcel. He was successful and free-spirited and in town to visit his daughter who was attending school. I found public transportation universal, unifying.
When I was in Brooklyn, I took the train to my friends' place where everyone seemed extraordinarily at ease, relaxed and comfortable in their setting. It was as if it was the only time of the day they could be alone to think or read with no distraction, a brief and slow pace in a cluttered world. I found public transportation meditating.
Three movies I've watched in the last week — "Apt Pupil," "Whiplash," and "St. Vincent" — feature public transportation as a part of its setting, almost a character in dialogue. Its commonplace in these characters lives has me reminiscing. I, too, find comfort from sharing a ride with a group of strangers.
Each city is covered by a veil of tourism and if you can uncover the veil you'll see what's behind it. You'll see a place for what it is, oftentimes conventionally less attractive when uncovered, but always more interesting.
If you don't already, make it a point to take a different route to a destinations next time you travel. It's surprisingly easy, affordable and it provides you an authentic glimpse at the core of a city.
Don't feel out of place. One thing I've learned from public transportation is that you're never out of place. Everybody is out of place and in that everyone is in place.
Women and men, old and young, Jewish or Muslim, white or black, poor and wealthy, uneducated and educated — it just doesn't matter. Everyone is unique in form. Everyone has their own destination. Everyone has their own story — no greater, no less.
Public transportation is a humbling reminder that the world is alive, and in life, as strangely different as we may appear to be, we're all going from some point A to some point B.
Contact Kate Malott at 641-792-1912 ext. 6533 or kmalott@newtondailynews.com