Get Back On Board

"As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.” - John Steinbeck

We move through life at a pace comfortable with the progress we want to make. In search of our dreams we keep moving forward through the maze of others. The focus of that movement is towards the goals we have established for our lives.

Then one day you get tired of the movement, feeling no progress is being made. We stop and wonder about our life which sometimes turns into self pity. All the while, life keeps moving past us even faster. We can stand on the side of the tracks watching the train go by, or choose to engage in the movement once again.

If we stop, as Steinbeck says, the moment becomes much more than a moment. So much opportunity passes us by if we adapt a victim mentality. The type of mentality which believes the whole world needs to stop just for them.

Very much like a train stop, people engage to see how you are doing. They will genuinely care for your situation but the train can not stay still for long. The whistle blows and the train leaves the station, leaving you standing alone once again.

Be willing to get back on board the train should you have had cause to pause for a moment or two.

Choose not to be a victim in life and become fully part of it.

Find out where the train can take you and experience the wonder of it.

Stay inspired my friends.

Queue

"An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one." ~George Mikes

Am I really all that surprised? Is it one of those things that until you have experienced it, you just can not describe it? Spending an extra amount of time in London can reveal the little things about a society. Those are the things that you may read about in magazines but experience once there.

For me it was all about the London Underground and learning the train system. Its rather easy once you get the hang of it and very convenient in most cases. That is until the delays occur, the outages and closures which seem to pop up when you least expect. It can be a great and sometimes frustrating experience.

What I found interesting to see though is the British knack for queueing up in a line. Whether it be for tickets, to pass through the turnstile, or getting on the train; queueing is almost an art form here. The line crashers and confused may try to come in at an angle, but quickly they are dismissed.

It can actually be fun to watch the precision with which they form a queue. It can be very much like watching a synchronized water dance from the old Esther Williams movies. A seemingly random mass of people gliding into a one or two person line, side-by-side, slipping into the arms of an escalator. Or maybe a well timed slither of human snake lines onto and off of a train catches your eye.

I'm not sure what drives it. An article in the Guardian Newspaper back in 2003 suggested that the British might be losing their patience for queues. If they have, I would be amazed to see what it was like before then. The queues still seem to flourish with apparent belief that the line will actually get them somewhere.

Is it a blind faith that the system will work and that they will achieve the point of their queueing? When you have the large amount of people using a transport system such as this one, a certain amount of belief in the system is necessary I guess. For me, it reminds me that all of us need to have a certain amount of faith in our destination.

There might involve a queue that will get us to the next part of our journey. And we need to have a certain amount of belief that this is the right queue to stand in. Once through the line, we still have to struggle with the crowded platform, the delayed trains and breakdowns. But once we get used to how it all works, then the journey becomes an adventure to enjoy.

The destination will arrive eventually and whether it be standing in a queue along the way or riding the train, it might as well be fun.