Why I Like Train Travel (also applies to the Alaska-Washington Ferry)

I love train travel.  I get to sit back, relax, stretch out, watch movies, read, think, all while watching the gorgeous scenery that is the United States pass by.  I can talk with the train attendants, who on my Seattle-Chicago leg of travel were 2 lovely individuals who were just starting their Amtrak careers- one having 4 months' experience, and the other on her very first training ride, other passengers, who come from all sorts of different walks of life, or work on projects.

I love the diversity of people I've met on the train.  There is such an evident mix of races, genders, ages, professions, avocations, social and financial statuses.  [On a note, I've only traveled in coach, not in the sleeping cars, which are more expensive and more private, so I don't know how much of what I'm saying applies to those passengers.]  On my trips last summer and this, I talked in Spanish with a Guatemalan mother and her 2 sons in the diner car, discussed race with an interesting young woman en route to DC, made friends with a itinerant drummer, listened to one guy's stories about traveling around the parts of central Asia which have enraptured my mind for years, and met a fellow who had his possessions in a Peruvian basket and was using a fountain pen to write the most visually beautiful longhand letters I've seen.

Train travel is as communal or solitary as you want it, given the range from lounge car to sleeper.  In coach, with my sleeping bag, computer, and headphones, I could be practically alone (granted, it helps that for the most part, the seat beside me was empty).  Train travel is leisurely, flexible, and essentially communal.  For a touch of class and schedule (because there isn't much to mark the passage of time), there is the option of the dining car, where for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the attendants do their best to fill all 4 seats at each table, often bringing complete strangers together for half an hour of conversation.  It can be relaxing, in that once I'm on the train, I know that it will arrive when it will arrive regardless of my actions or wishes.  Unfortunately, due to the current state of trains and rails in this country, arriving 2 hours late is fairly reasonable, but if such delays are anticipated, they don't have to add stress.*

As much as I enjoy it, I acknowledge that Amtrak has plenty of room for improvement.  Because freight brings in the money, the freight lines own the rails and have priority over passenger rail, we have to wait for them to pass.  However, many other delays are from maintenance issues.  I've been on 2 trains on which an engine needed to be replaced, and had multiple delayed departures due to maintenance work, so maybe they could have an extra engine at main stations, and do more for their working fleet (or whatever the railroad terminology for engine collection would be)?
But, to legitimize the expenditure, people need to use the passenger service, so get on the rails, and be sure to schedule in some extra time on the end!

Getting people to use the passenger service, which I will reiterate, I consider fabulous, nearly requires a cultural shift.

Right now, the United States is all about efficiency, independence, autonomy, and privacy.  I see it in Keurig coffee makers, empty carpool lanes next to 3 lanes of stopped traffic, closed doors house doors, selfies, and headphones.  We cling to our choices and laud self-reliance, while immersing ourselves in virtual worlds populated by people who think the same ways we do, mindlessly led by charismatic leaders.  It's easier that way, but results in a divided society which considers the only acceptable "compromise" to be a complete victory.

If we talk to each other, especially those who have different ideas, we can learn about our country, and what actually makes it work.  We can develop empathy and form bonds between the myriad races, ethnicities, religions (or lack), genders, sexualities, wealth levels...all of the things which contribute to our identities.

Traveling on the train is a prime place to exercise that skill of being human- communication! (As well as, you know, taking time to enjoy life, disconnecting from our frenetic lives, sitting back, and reuniting with ourselves apart from our activities.

By communicating, we can build a common community, based on communal values which will bring actual unity to prominence, overcoming our divisions.

*Yes, there are inconvenient delays, and I spoke briefly with some passengers who refused to be anything but frustrated and angry because of them, but that happens with every other form of travel, be it foot, bicycle, car, bus, train, plane, ferry, balloon.  I arrived in Chicago over 23 hours late on my last trip- but I've been stuck in the wrong city for days waiting for a plane in winter!

Not about travelling. Frustration and train of thought.

I'm sick of it.  I'm sick and tired of hearing about people dying.  I'm sick of people who are supposed to be protectors fearing their wards.  I'm sick of individuals, who in the end, act for themselves, killing other individuals.  I'm tired of people taking verbal and physical attacks on other people, or even on groups, as personal.  I'm tired of people attacking individuals as a means to attack a group.

I'm tired of people being out for their own gain, no matter the expense.  I'm tired of thoughtless consumerism, and enabled greed.  I'm really tired of people being terrified of otherness, of anything that doesn't fit into their thought-models.  I'm tired of racism, tired of homophobia, transphobia.  I'm tired of double standards.  I'm tired of people caring about other people's labels, but not the people themselves.  I'm tired of people calling the police on their neighbors because their kids are walking down the street, or having a pool party.  I definitely don't want to hear about how people "can't even" or "have no words" and whatnot about coffee drinks and fashion etc, phrases which are bandied around so freely that it seems the users are discouragingly uneducated and can't come up with suitable expressions, and it makes those sentiments less meaningful when an event is actually that impactful.

I'm tired of people closing themselves off in carefully constructed worlds of internet fora and netflix.  I'm tired to death of people blaming him, her, them, anybody but themselves.  I'm tired of old, horrible, injustices being used as justification for modern crimes.  I'm tired of one-up-man-ship, and the need to win to beat somebody.  There isn't a group on the earth who didn't abuse their power when they had it, and precious few if any, that never drew the short stick.

Can we talk to our neighbors?  Can we walk around our world, and engage with our fellow inhabitants, and not just the ones who are the same?  (We might find that many more are the same than we think.)  Can we empathize with someone else's pain, someone else's history, someone else's joy?  Can we step up to the challenge that is a divided world, and take hands?  Can we see through our pain, through our hurt, and see that we aren't the only ones?

Who will be the bigger man?  Who will be brave in the face of adversity?  Who will put themself aside, for the greater good?

There are thousands of people who do just that.  There are wonderful people in every community.  There are wonderful kids and adults, there are wonderful police officers, there are mothers and fathers who teach their children to listen.  There are so many people who genuinely want to understand, to reach out, and to connect.  We can help them, and in doing so, help ourselves.

We all benefit from saving the world.  Why not work together on it?

Song list:
What a Wonderful World- Louis Armstrong
Stand by me - Ben King
Put a little love in your heart - Jackie DeShannon
You've got to be carefully taught - Rodgers and Hammerstein (South Pacific)
Lean on me - Bill Withers
One Love - Bob Marley
Where is the love - Black Eyed Peas
Let there be peace on earth - Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller
You'll never walk alone - Rodgers and Hammerstein (Carousel)
He's got the whole world in his hands- traditional
We shall overcome - ?

Tangents that I almost veered into, because there is always more to say and more ways to expand, and ALL PARTIES have room for improvement:
Responses to more specific incidents and topics
USA's leadership and hypocrisy
Rights to culture/cultural appropriation
The purpose and place of police
Domestic intercultural relations
Sexism/racism/bigotry (subset, double standards and assumptions)
Gun control
What can we do?