Learning in the transfer

I was watching the Sunday morning preachers this past weekend as I rearranged my apartment. I like listening to people preach. It is great training and often, they have good stuff to say. This weekend's offering from a man selling his inspirational CD, really got me thinking. (No, not about following Jesus but about God, religion and people). His message was something to the effect of "If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn't thinking" (says George S. Patten Jr. according to Neil's lemonade bottle). And when people aren't thinking then it is likely that there is a whole heck of a lot of room to bring in God.

Almost every day I take the NW from Queens in to the city. Most days, I transfer from the NW to the 4/5 express train. Me along with every one else in the city, it seems. The shiny NW train vomits out throngs of people who ooze their way over to the stairwell and spill, slowly down into the bowels of the station towards the 4/5 and express transport to somewhere on the east side of the city.

And, at the same time, people are inching up from the bowels to the NW to be swallowed whole and whisked away. The stairwell, wide enough for three across but not hundreds of people at a time. Congested at best, constipated at worse, this is never an easy exchange. Everyone thinking the same thing. Where I need to go is really important and I need to get there now!

It's mayhem. Shoving, pushing, shoulder's squared, heads down, war faces on. Feet shuffle forward, elbows stick out to garner a place in this line of sludgy mass to make it from one destination to the next.

Stimulus followed immediately by response. No thinking. Stimulus-must move! Response-Moving!

It's terrible. Anyone who is slow moving is hated collectively by the crowd for making things worse. Backpacks and protruding packages receive many a fierce, dismissive, cruel gaze. Uh, who do YOU think YOU are walking through HERE with THAT!! We fight to be competitors in this rat race.

I imagine, if God were there, God would step back at the top of the stairs and let the old ladies, the weak, the infirm, the tired, the schlepping, the shuffling, the laden, the down trodden go first. God would smile, look others in the eye, greet the faces of fellow travelers with warmth, presence, seeing, awareness.

Patton is right, the Sunday preacher was right...when we all think alike, no one is thinking. If any of us thought for a moment about humanity, compassion, justice, righteousness we could probably learn a lot about God in the transfer.