Riding Metro North. It’s that time…

Posted on by Live & Learn

train

6:38 am. 36° F.
November 9th. First day of overcoat weather.

I snag one of the last seats on the aisle.
Iron Man is full, standing room only.
And it’s Iron Man, not Iron Woman, or Iron Person.
Nothing graceful about a single, 145,000 pound train car.
No curves. No nuance.
A muscle car. A Beast.
Clacking steel on steel.
The wind gust from a passing train slams the air pocket in the bi-folding doors.

It’s Monday morning. Silence.
Commuter Code: No Exceptions. All cars are quiet cars. No Talking. NO TALKING.
Newspapers? None in sight.
Trees saved.  Whispers of flicking fingers on digital. The new order.

I’m a Dyson DC65 Animal Upright Vacuum Cleaner, sucking up and digesting two morning papers, unread blog posts, two chapters of Colum McCann’s Thirteen Ways of Looking and onto morning meeting preparation. Mr. Pro-duct-tivity.  A good night sleep + all body parts functioning + who-knows-what = This Machine is Rollin’.

Metro North pulls into Grand Central.
I bolt out with the herd stampeding for the exits.
I’m humming Luther Van Dross’ Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.  We’re on the move…we’re in the groove. Don’t you let nothing, nothing stand in your way…

I walk into Grand Central Terminal and slow with the foot traffic.
Luther’s buzz proves to be ephemeral.
The wind at the back – gone.  Sails fall flat.

There’s a shrill whining noise from the overhead speakers.
I glance left and right.  And, there they are.
Armed National Guards, expressionless, manning each side of the exit ramps.
Two men in uniform. Each port covered.
Russian Airliner down.  NYC on high alert. And you Mister, are humming Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.

I step outside the terminal. There’s building construction overhead.
Steel cutters. Welders. Jack hammers.
On the street side, there’s cab horns, air brakes from morning delivery trucks and sirens.
All a cacophony of deafening clamor.

But, there, in the distance, I can’t see it, but I hear it.
It cuts through the din, through the traffic, thorough the terrorist threat, through the incessant chatter upstairs.

Unmistakable.

Unambiguous, that bell.

The arm swinging.

The urgency. The need. The immediacy. Now. Give Now.

Salvation.  The Salvation Army.

Christmas is here.

Notes:

24 thoughts on “Riding Metro North. It’s that time…”

  5. Salvation – the irony..that we should toll for it once a year as we treat each other and the world with such cruelty and dismissiveness. Ride the Iron Man, David – feel the awesomeness of individual power and talent and potential. In your words and in your heart you ring that bell daily. Kudos.

  7. You really take us with you on your travels. Each line of your post holds a story. “Whispers of flicking fingers on digital. The new order.” This new order has created more disconnection and loneliness than any other time. The salvation army may be our reminder to care.

  9. Love how you describe your morning in the chaotic order, that pulsates urgency and plays by its own unwritten rules. It’s game time all the time. Brilliant, David. Ps. I understand the urgency of helping, and not only at Christmas time.

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