Subconscious Connections

Billions of people around the world ride on trains each day to get to where they need to be. Sometimes the trains are so crowded that you can’t even find a place to have a seat for the ride. Or you may wind up taking a seat next to a stranger, and be uncomfortably close to someone you don’t know at all. In this case, the train wasn’t crowded at all and there were plenty of open seats. But each seat has been used over and over again throughout the years, probably having held thousands of different passengers. Each passenger who has ever sat in one of these seats has a life and a story as unique to them as their fingerprints. On a quiet train, traveling alone, it ican be easy to feel disconnected and isolated from others. Yet in ways seemingly so small, like sharing space on a train, or occupying a seat after someone else, we have the opportunity to connect with other people, possibly touching their lives in ways we may never fully realize.

— Mariah Woodbury