I’ve ridden on a lot of trains in my life. No, I’m no hobo. These were passenger trains.
Most were very functional. Some were quite comfortable. But one feature of riding on a train has always had a strange attraction for me. That ‘feature’ has been the terrifying yet exhilarating few moments of crossing from one car to another (over the couplings) while the train is moving at full speed.
The interior of the train is, of course, built for safety and the comfort of the human body—at least as far as the train line’s budget allows.
The outside of the train, on the contrary, is designed for safety, weather-tightness, identification, etc.
But what about that in-between space? That place between the cars. That place where the exterior intrudes on the interior—or is it the interior extruding on the exterior? It is, in reality, a half-way place, a nether-worldly place. A place where human bodies don’t belong (there’s even a sign to that effect!) And yet, it is a place those bodies, at least occasionally, must traverse.
I suppose that is why that moment in time and space thrills me. The smell of heavy grease, the clash of the steel, the rattle of the wheels, the burst of frigid or super-heated air. In my otherwise very safe life, those crossing moments are my rare glimpses of danger. Those moments of hanging in the balance, surfing the steel above those barely hidden yet deadly mechanisms and the rough roadbed below. Like some real-life video game, jumping between slicing blades or collapsing rocks, I am inches from instantaneous death, moments from being mangled meat.
I suppose on a more cerebral level, it is also the movement from one sphere to another. Spheres overwhelmingly larger than ourselves. Is it like stepping into space, stepping from life into death, death into life? Of course, my lesser mind knows that through that heavy metal door is just another train car.
But who knows? What if, this time, it isn’t? …
So, there are those who sit safely, sleepily, in the same car for the entire trip. Is it out of complacency? Or is it fear?
But I’m of a different sort. I’m an adventurer! Look at me, the mighty Sir Edmund Hilary, the intrepid Ferdinand Magellan. Follow me! I will show you a new way. A new world. Just on the other side of these stainless steel gates!
On second thought, maybe tomorrow … my stop’s coming up.
