Standing in the midst of eight long lines for Metro tickets, we observed each person arrived at the machine unprepared for the transaction. How would we have known ahead of time that a machine only gave up to $5.00 change, or which machine was cash only? The sign listing fare amounts also seemed to present a challenge to each purchaser. In spite of confusion slowing down the process, all these new Metro riders retained their good cheer and helped each other making change, or offering condolences when one had to start all over again in another long line for a machine which accepted cards!
To navigate the Metro, we followed a color and a destination. The destination was the station at the end of the line in our desired direction. While our desired stop was near the Mall between 3rd and 7th, the directional signs only gave us a choice between the end of the line in either direction.
I think now of the every-day implications--each stop along the way is really taking us to the end of the line, in one direction or another--politically, academically, socially, spiritually... it's important to have our eyes on the final destination to be sure we're headed the right way!
At each stop, the number of riders waiting to get on increased, until we did not know how another person could possible enter our car, yet they did...many in fact. We reached our stop at L'Enfant Plaza. From there on, we became part of the collective. No need to wonder where to go, or ask directions--we joined the early morning crowd of anticipation, moving as one, up stairways, across streets, and past venders. The fall chill in the air was tempered by clear sunny skies, as some stopped to buy hats, commemorative towels, t-shirts, and badges.
I was reminded of a walk I made with father in Poland on this same weekend almost ten years ago. Though not having lived in Poland, though not being Catholic, and not practicing the annual cultural visit to the cemetary on All Saints Day, I told Joanna how I felt the historical Catholicism and Polish roots in my blood that day in Warsaw. It felt entirely right to be there in the midst of their pilgrimage, moving as a collective that day too.
We reached the mall two hours before the rally was scheduled to begin, yet every bit of lawn was already taken, so we continued forward with the walkers along the side, hoping for a clue what to do next. Instinctively, I stopped along the edge of the lawn, one jumbo-tron back from the stage. In the next few minutes I realized the walking crowd along the edges had become a mass, body to body, almost impenetrable. Joanna had gone to find cell phone reception and I asked a young woman if she would mind if I sat in her husband's chair while he was out looking for food. She said, "Sure," and I knew we'd found the right spot!
Similar to times I've been caught up in a creative project, when many hours go by without any realization of time, hunger, or thirst, I was about to experience five hours in this sunny crowd with no realization except the experience itself. Every age was represented, from young children to teens, twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings, and everything higher--through middle age and beyond--all mixed up together, ethnically, socially, economically, with one thing in common...we all wanted to be there...we just knew we wanted to be there.
...to be continued.
November 2, 2010: Better today, was able to get the "Startrac" Treadmill to show my heartrate in the "Endurance Training" level (for me, 133-152) the whole time! Average heartrate for workout--137. Probably time to raise the speed and elevation a bit tomorrow.