Transit Strike Day #3:
(R)EVOLUTION

December 22, 2005: 11:00 PM
R. D. Kushner

NEW YORK CITY - As the city begins to thaw from a transit-induced cryogenic suspension, the past days events will be remembered as a pleasant and exciting diversion from reality. Commuting in this city is by nature a periodically harrowing experience; so a transit strike, although more hyperbolic and systemic than most misfortunes, was merely a temporary inconvenience. The economic “loss” [based on idealistically cheerful sales forecasts to be sure] will be water-cooler talk for some time, but the cheer of the holidays will arrive with scientific certainty - and soon the morning commute will be monotonous and predictable once again.

Holiday commitments will further delay the average New Yorker’s confrontation with reality; a reality abandoned Tuesday morning as shoes became a mode of transportation and not just a fashion accessory. Shopping, traveling, the kissing and hugging of relatives and old friends will pleasantly appease the mind; office politics, city politics, and United States Government politics will wander far, far from the imagination. “Good will,” and “Peace on Earth,” will pass from euphemism, to wishful thinking, to inevitable reality over eggnog and fruit cake. Santa will “ho, ho, ho,” Chanukah candles will flicker and sway, and smiles will reveal sweet memories in the making.

The few days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve will be spent in and out of subway-cars and buses, on the way to and from parties, dancing from curbs to taxis, and from taxis to doorsteps. The ball will drop, Times Square will explode with confetti, and a national holiday will offer one last day off and the joy of free parking.

After this brief reprieve, life will slowly begin to crystallize into familiar forms. The days events will resemble a chess game in slow motion, credit card bills will arrive without notice, and resolutions will go on strike, and then quit altogether. At the same time, the office life will quietly invade early morning thoughts, as the body tries unsuccessfully to sleep under warm winter blankets. The evening news will play out the last vestiges of holiday spirit, before dead American soldiers, corrupt politicians, trampled civil liberties, covert wire taps, and a small victory for Charles Darwin in Pennsylvania, remind Americans that the heroin binge of consumerism has lead to a mighty hangover. The cure of course, is to evolve.

Consider the transit strike a random mutation in the gene pool of ordinary human activity. New Yorkers demonstrated, on a small scale, the industry, creativity, and resilience of the human animal. This New Year’s Eve, the marking of another revolution of the Earth around the Sun will coincide with the memories of a transit strike which offers a rare opportunity for human evolution. In just the same way that births, deaths, and other jarring experiences invoke an “ah ha” moment in hominid brain – where for a moment of clarity the really important things in life stand out from the boring and the banal – the transit strike offers a lesson in Darwinian Evolution. To fully comprehend the potential for this strike to alter the course of humanity, one must first recognize that it is the nature of this holiday season to alter reality and turn life into a feast of poetry and carnal pleasures. The dawning of a new year is a thing to behold; but it must be placed in proper context if its effects are to propagate into the future.

New Year’s day reflects only a very recent human recognition of the concept of time based on the predictable dance of cosmic physics. The year 2006 is a number that is easily comprehendible; if $2,006 was a dollar amount, most New Yorkers would be happy to call it rent; if 2,006 were a compilation of 24 hour days it would equal approximately 5.5 years; and if 2006 were the pages in a book, it would be just slightly over 3 copies of J. K. Rowling’s 6th installment in her Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” 2006 is tangible. The mind can easily envision such a small abstract quantity.

The revolution of the Earth around the Sun has been an astronomical routine for approximately 4.5 billion years. This is an extraordinarily long time, and much more difficult to understand than 2006. To imagine the nearly infinite and subtle metamorphoses that had to occur over 4.5 billion years, so that one can sit and type on a computer and then cast an essay effortlessly out into the digital ether, is to understand the eccentric mystery of human life. And yet 4.5 billion years, remarkable as they all have been, is a number, a quantifiable concept, that is eclipsed by relatively banal human statistics.

There are almost 6.5 billion human beings on the planet Earth; $39.7 billion dollars of budget cuts were just recently approved by the United States Senate; Total war spending by the United States since September 11, 2001 is approximately $300 billion [and growing]; The United States trade deficit hit a new record of $68.9 billion just this December. The Earth’s age seems to pale in comparison to these enormous numerical statistics. And yet to try to understand the almost inconceivable reality of human consciousness is to comprehend that 4.5 billion revolutions around the sun is truly a magical and undeniable enigma.

This holiday season, evolve. Don’t let life’s routine become just one more revolution in a 4.5 billion year exercise in futility. The idea of a New Year’s resolution is a reflection that once a year, as time is marked for human history, that the world can do better, and so can we as individuals. Sustaining a resolution is a difficult art form; the gravity of routine is hard to resist. But when the routine is bankrupt, it is time to put an end to the corruption and the malevolence. The stubborn stance of “staying the course,” leads to personal and societal destruction, impotence, and embarrassment; it is a blindness that mocks reality. This time of year is the best time to make an intervention that makes a difference. It is time to evolve.

Look. Listen. Consider. Evolve. Can all of life be lived with the kind of joy and intensity that blossoms during this holiday season? Yes. Yes it can. Instead of taking the subway to work on January 3rd, find an alternate means of transportation. Take the bus. Take a taxi. Ride a bike. Get off two stops early and walk the rest of the way. Take an extra day off and call in sick. Present yourself with a small, but significant memento of the 2006 New York City transit strike. Make what was an unavoidable inconvenience, a habit of choice and variety; and in the process, engage life with intensity, critical intelligence, and renewed objectivity. The winter holidays only come once a year; but life is a delicious joy, and a transcendent mystery, all year round.