Friday, January 21, 2005, 5:54pm
Friday, January 21, 2005, 5:54pm
Only the unprepared, the misinformed, and the fashion obsessed are daring go without full winter regalia this evening. By noon the temperature had reached no higher than 9 degrees in Boston, and yet a fair percentage of pedestrians this evening are braving the arctic air with improper gear or steadfastly adhering to the mantra of the perfect look notwithstanding the agony of each imperfect moment.
People quake at the innocuous fear mongering from Washington, yet think nothing of putting their lives in danger on a night like this – where dropping house or car keys into a snowy abyss could easily spell certain doom.
Aboard the train there is apparent safety. This place is warm, lots of people chatter and wait for our departure to points west, and almost no one considers the consequences of a wreck along the shores of Lake Cochituate or within the genuinely deep woods west of Ashland. On a freezing cold night like this the wreck itself would be only the beginning of the misery.
As is the normal case, the news is full of head scratching over a witch’s brew of sacred and patriotic words hurled at us from the presidential podium yesterday. No one has yet publicly come to state the obvious of how there was no meaning to these words; only some unknown number of intended effects, and not the slightest clue for how to make this a better world for our children.
Meanwhile we muddle through uncertain times – which in that respect is really no different than those times when we feel a sense of certitude. In five seconds I could be dead as a doornail from any number of unlikely events. I can either worry incessantly or take a positive approach and look at where I might improve the odds in other places. Those areas beyond my influence I may monitor, like I monitor the horizon for storms. And when I hear about vaguely innocuous threats from the present government I will ignore them unless the threat mongers have something concrete to say about the nature of the risk or how I can avoid it should the danger be more than convenient political invention.
We get the government we deserve when we vote with our guts rather than clear thinking about what these characters are doing behind the drawn curtain. And until clarity is the goal of political discourse I’m wasting heart beats and keystroke even writing about it.
Past Route 128 we roll at max track speed as we’ve been doing since Back Bay Station, so whether I like it or not, it appears my ride aboard a warm train tonight will be quick and my opportunity to test the temperature and winds in Ashland will arrive sooner than I would like. But it is Friday, and so for two days I won’t need to concern myself with arctic weather.
I once thought that ego and hubris were the greatest dangers of human nature, but now I understand that it is more likely ignorance and fear and faulty thinking – especially when fanned and manipulated by the apparatus of the message makers.
As I wrote earlier, I am becoming more comfortable with my fellow man, but I have a long way to go before I can feel comfortable with institutions and their owners who only exist to “have and have more” – to quote our president’s opinion on the reason for our national existence.
Framingham Station rolls into view, and soon I’ll begin the transformation back to a wintertime pedestrian trudging across the Metrowest tundra, with the vision of family and cats surround a fireplace hearth pulling me ahead. It is barely two more months before the first day of spring, but there is no evidence of this tonight at all.
