Inside the Beltway

Every morning I metro about 40 minutes down to work in Alexandria, VA. This evening, as I ventured home from work, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the Metro. Here are just a few of my random thoughts:

- 50% of the people on the Metro on in their own little world of their Ipod. We each literally create our soundtracks for our lives as we go about our day. Each person has his/her choice of song to match the mood and the experience. As I watch everyone listening to his/her own music and involved so much in his/her own world, I wonder what it would be like to know what each person is thinking, feeling, and listening to.

- DC is filled with Type A personality. The city is made of people who are over-achievers, over-workers, over-anxious, over-stressed and pretty much everything to the extreme. They moved to this city to change the world, to make a difference, to pursue dreams; yet now, they strive each day to barely stay on top and realize the "system" makes things almost impossible to accomplish.

- I love examining people's expressions on the Metro. You see everything - crying, laughing, drunkness, bitterness, anger, love, and the most popular - the blank stare of dullness. The best to see is people just enjoying life. I love it when I see people coming home from work and they look alive and excited, instead of half-dead from a days work. I love watching the people dance to the music and groove with the beat. This evening, I watched a man in an electric cart rock back and forth as he pumped his groove to whatever music he had flowing into his years. Shortly after, I watched a man bust out dancing as he waited on the platform for the Metro to come. This ensures me that people are alive, breathing, thinking, and have yet to become completely devoid of life's little blessings (which in reality are the best things after all).

- There are a hell of a lot of people in this world. As I barely fit myself into a crowded Metro, I realize how many people cover this city, this county, this world of ours. Each person is heading somewhere, striving to do the best they can, pushing to get ahead (ahead of what? no one knows?) and yet, we fail to realize all the people around us. We are each so trapped in our worlds we fail to see the person we push out of the way in order to catch the train.

It may not be "home." It may not be the prettiest place. It may be too busy, to hectic, to self-obsessed. But DC, the people who live here, fascinate me and I am in love with discovering more about them and learning how to love them - cause that is what it is ultimately about. How do I love these Type A, striving world-changers?