altruism

preface (if you have a short attention span, high blood pressure or kidney disease, or are in a hurry, skip to real story):

yesterday i was waiting on the platform at north station for my train to be announced (you see, every day, those of us who regularly take the lowell 6.25 train know that 92% of the time, it departs from track 8. they won't announce it till about 6.20, but if you're on the platform early, you have a good chance of beating out the maddening throng as it rushes toward the train. why it's a maddening throng, and why i and 50-some-odd others wait ahead of it on the platform, i don't know...you may raise the point that there are X many seats on the train with X many cars, and X many people attempting to board the train, all of whom will end up sitting in a seat and paying the same fare...all of whom will wait either in the station, on the platform, or in the train for the same amount of time prior to departure...those are all valid points. i still get old men smelling like wint-o-green lifesavers squeezing into the seat next to me regardless of when i board the train and from what vantage point. for an explanation of the "beat the maddening throng" behavior, check out my post on OCD and elevator control. same principle).

story:

i've set the stage. i'm listening to beaucoup fish and looking at the kinds of shoes that are walking past me. i notice a lone rollerblade and a dirty sock coasting past. a guy is skating on one leg, carrying his other rollerblade, pushing himself along with one stocking-foot as fast as he can, in what seems to me a parody of both handicapped and retarded people (i am going to hell). he's really flying along the platform, desperately trying to catch the fitchburg-bound train which is slowly drifting away down track 7. by the time he's halfway down the platform, the train has fully pulled away and its caboose lights are receding out of the station. the man stops, balances on his one skate with his sock foot hovering limp over the ground with defeat (no pun intended). i watch, wondering what sort of expression one would have when something sucks that much. to my disbelief, the caboose lights are still visible. the train has stopped even though it's left the station. it slowly begins backing up. the man hurls himself towards the approaching train, elation in his one-skated dirty-socked thumping coasting hobble. the man and his skate board the train triumphantly, the train conductor is smiling, i am smiling, the maddening throng is smiling... and we are all happy to see the lone eccentric man catch his train home. for all that your green line service blows, and your piss-poor organization doesn't justify the fare, and boston makes a mockery of the phrase "public transportation," i have to say it....today, MBTA, you rule.