On a ride with public transport in a foreign country enjoying the reality I lived in those few days, I started observing the world around me and making assumptions about where all of this is heading, where it came from. My goal is to create a game in my mind to spend my time pleasantly until I reach my destination.
Starting point.
I feel restrained in the metro wagon that I’m in. It’s enough to understand that everyone “carries” something inside of them. Someone the tiredness of the day, of work or of having a good time. Another is making a mountain out of a molehill. The one next to them is smiling looking out of the window at the vast blackness of the subway. A little further along, a group of people laughing loudly leaving the gentleman in front of them who is unable to enjoy the route quite annoyed.
Stop.
Some get off, others get on, perhaps equally exhausted, tired, with troubled, happy, carefree gazes.
The wheels start running on the rags, while I keep playing my game, deeply lost in my thoughts and confused as to if I have taken the correct line. Someone is reading their book, someone else their favorite newspaper. A bit further someone is hidden in the screen of their phone, while the one next to them is staring into blank space.
Next stop.
Everyone follows the same line for a bit and are coordinated in the uncertainty of the moment: they get detached from what they were doing to make sure that their stop didn’t pass and then they go back to their initial moods and thoughts.
Next stop
A street musician enters and their musical journey begins. Some are enjoying the music, others get annoyed and others don’t even notice. Two stops go by and he gets off. Some applaud, others cheer up and their tired eyes lighten up for a moment, while others stay indifferent. And just like that the musical journey stops. The musician goes away, the doors close and everyone continues to “stagnantly” move towards their destination.
Next stop.
A family enters, while at the seat across them a lady has fallen asleep- and nobody knows if they should wake her up. The kids play and fight with each other, while their parents try not to lose sight of them among the crowd.
Next stop.
Only a few left. We probably won’t all get off at the same stop, we don’t all have the same destination. Some got off earlier, some got on later, we entered the same time with others and we’re getting off at the same time too but we don’t even know who they are. And if we ever came across them again in the past we wouldn’t know. Such a shame because it was a beautiful route. Even if the gentleman beside me was a bit nervous, even if a couple was giggling and a group of teenagers was kind of loud, even if the two strangers across me didn’t exchange a word. I wasn’t in a rush though, I was just going for a ride.
Terminal.
They’re all running hastily and I also catch up to their rhythm as well even though I’m not in a hurry. Driven away from the stress of my co-passengers I’m wondering where they are all going so hastily. Lost in the exits of this huge terminal I decide to… I had to find the correct exit, that’s why my thoughts suddenly get interrupted.
Right in front of my exit, I stopped short for a moment. I looked back and I took a last quick glance of the station. It was then that I wondered, who are we, where are we going to? And if someone knows the answer I’d rather they didn’t tell me. I wouldn’t really want to know. I’d like to keep searching just like I did with the stop I had to take or the line of the metro I had to follow, wandering all around the Terminals. Because life is a journey with the metro. Stops, different people whose paths cross for a while longer, without crossing them in the same way. Someone is enjoying this route, the other isn’t, but in the end this leads them somewhere.
Sometimes confused, others decisive and hasty, excited or shipwrecked from the infinite unknown that we’re walking through. We are always waiting for something; the next metro. Our friend to board at the next stop. An empty seat. We look at the faces around us and we are searching for something. And somewhere there, climbing the stairs to finally see the clear blue sky- for the first time during the entire journey- I wondered: what are we ultimately yearning for from the others? Their truth or the fulfillment of our ego and our needs?
*scattered thoughts between stops of the metro while returning from Le Marais.
