We’ve all seen the movie - Gwyneth Paltrow’s cinematic moment of truth where love and life hinges on whether or not she catches a train. In the Gwyneth version, she steps into a parallel universe with the luxury of seeing how her decisions affect her life, whether she catches or misses the train. For the rest of us, well they say hindsight is a wonderful thing, and our choices make us who we are.
In a whirl-wind week of networking and socialising I have rubbed shoulders with all walks of life, all with different train stories. It’s funny how keen strangers are to reveal their life and times and the many trains that have been caught and missed, tickets lost, tickets re-found. And it has made me wonder, does the journey we start out on in the morning have a pre-defined destination, or can the train we choose actually shape where we will go?
Clambering for the back are those that don’t even care if they make the train or not. The young and restless, with no consequence to worry about on the decisions they make and with a rock ‘n roll carelessness that is a pre-requisite for starting out on life’s journey - armed with student rail card and entrapped with the excitement of the euro-pass to discover and blunder at every stop along the way.
The trendy singletons, standing on the same Gwyneth platform, typical dot.com in attitude, the world is their oyster with one eye on the dream of the first class carriage and the other on the next stop please. The singletons are on the party train, usually sleepy eyed and on the first one out on the morning, usually from someone else’s neighbourhood station, rarely the same station one weekend to the next.
Already armed with the newspaper and coffee (travel mug, from home) and standing just before the yellow line is the 2.4 regular, owner of the obligatory value travel card. Fed up with the days of missing trains, they work to a disciplined routine and make sure they are on the platform 15 minutes early for the train that is guaranteed a seat.
However what has surprised me most, perhaps naïvely, is the number of people who are no longer on the Gwyneth platform, but have taken the train and are living in one or other avenue of the Gwyneth parallels - The next train lifeline that has taken them on a diversion or found a new destination, or searching their pockets for the lost ticket that lets them on the regular train that might be less exciting but reliable.
Personally, I shall stick to cabs - my rules and my journey. But the next time you wait by the platform, think before you catch the train, about where and what you really want to get reach...
‘Til next time, Pandora
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