I know it has been said often that death is the great equalizer but I truly think a convincing case can be made for Long Island Railroad. Each time I am on a train I find a little microcosm of the world at large and if I'm going to judge the zeitgeist by this current train car, the world is full of drunk, miserable, stinky people. In a strong argument in favor of that last point, I just had to transfer trains en masse with some weekend tourists and someone farted in the center of the crowd, setting off a ripple effect of disgusted groans. See? Black, white, male, female, rich,poor....we all succumbed together. The great equalizer.
THEN, some small child started singing in an extraordinarily nasally voice the refrain to that old church ditty "Hosana in the Highest." Growing up going to mass every week, my favorite part was always the singing. I even enjoyed how most people couldn't carry a tune but tried out loud anyway. It seemed like everyone was on equal footing there too. For all its faults, going to mass gave me a sense of community and togetherness. I felt that again this afternoon when I realized that everyone around me in that train car equally wanted to strangle that child by her fifth repetition of the song.
That is all.
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