monochrome

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Groups of individuals waiting on a subway platform, under construction

I wonder sometimes if I could live in a city without a robust public transportation system. I don't mind driving, but I don't particularly enjoy it either. And while on a steamy hot summer afternoon the subway may not be the most comfortable place to be, there's something equalizing about it that I still admire.

Shortly before I first moved to the city, I had watched Jacob's Ladder, a film that substitutes New York for a certain type of purgatory. My first late night underground, in the wee small hours of the morning, I couldn't shake the images from the film from my head. The platforms were empty and in my mind's eye I saw slightly supernatural figures appear at the ends of the platform. I was probably waiting for the F line. I thought about walking the rest of the way home. I remember one night where I waited 45 minutes for a train. That night I did walk home.

These days I walk to work. It's a different type of commute, and in a strange way I have to pay more attention to where I'm going rather than to my surroundings. At times I miss the ease of riding to work (though I don't miss squeezing into potentially packed cars), and I look forward to those times I am able to join the rest of New York, underground.