All aboard!
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, March 16, 2007
As we travel through life, the hectoring of modern
society finds us few chances for quiet contemplation.
A cleverly lazy fellow such as moi can
sometimes catch a snatched few minutes in a parked car
in his driveway or perhaps even a walk in the woods. But
so few spots near urban areas are quiet even there.
If you are adjudged insane (and far more such than we
know are walking about loose) perhaps you will be
provided with a whirlpool bath, designed to quiet your
maniacal urges. You know, the ones we all feel toward
real and abstract forces in our lives.
Maybe drugs or booze offer temporary relief but
surely not sustaining comfort—unless you believe the
late
Dean Martin.
Where but oh where can one find a sustained stretch
of time when gliding through space. Surely not in
today`s urban traffic, even in your $75,000 Lexus. Where
indeed are those mostly silent interludes that allow one
Zen-like contemplation in the urban miasma?
I`ll tell you: It`s the quiet car on Acela trains
that run numerous times a week between Washington, D.C.,
New York City and Boston.
Working as a consultant with a diverse portfolio of
activities, I find Acela is a habit-forming joy, an
addiction with no apparent side effects. You can get
special discounts for regular use, which put costs in
line with air travel, especially when you add the
typical hassles of flight these days.
When passenger train travel across the United States
was common, experiences such as sleeping cars and parlor
cars offered all Americans a similar chance. But with
the accelerated pace of business life, most of that is
lost. The quiet car is an exception, a miniature
throwback to those golden train days which are lost
forever.
Oh, but you say, I could more cheaply go hide in a
closet in my own house, avoiding kids, wifely
instructions, etc. OK, do that if you must. But the
sense of stillness to me is not the essence. Peace needs
some motion. And I don`t mean a couch-potato immersion
in front of a TV set.
Peace is not completely noiseless or frictionless,
just relatively so. And the panorama of passing scenery
from stretches of open water and woods to the backsides
of broken warehouses or humble row houses allows a
wandering eye to speculate on anything and everything.
Alas, we rumble a bit on American trains, not having
reached rail or auto parity with the Japanese. But
perhaps it`s even the rocking motion I like, the
moving-picture scenery. And no loud talking or cell
phone use. People there are like yourself—amiably and
quietly taking their extended escapes with you in a
world too overgrown with news about Iraq or Anna Nicole
Smith.
And you might even have a seminal thought about how
to help a family member or friend with a personal
problem—or even how to help yourself better understand
yourself. Heavens, that lack of such meditative
opportunities in modern life almost drowns out
everything most of the time.
So, pick a nice day or not, take a good book,
magazine or crossword, leave from D.C. at a civilized
hour like 10 a.m. and give it a try. I`ll bet two things
will happen:
First, I suspect along the route you will have a
wonderful nap or two.
Second, you will feel the power of this extended
time/space submersion, making you subject to my
addiction to this nontoxic, non-debilitating yet utterly
compelling mode of travel.
Go to
www.amtrak.com for
more information.
Donald A. Collins [email
him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.
