Open Mind, Open Heart

The trip to Montreal was so relaxing. A quick trip up to dinner with a jazz musician.  A good mile walk to the hotel on an autumn night in Montreal!  Simple bed with simple 12X12 room with desk, very cosmopolitan, contemporary bath and shower, comfortable! Yes, yes!

The starting point for us was a train (Rensselaer) stopping over to attach a dome car, yes it was our annual fall foliage trip, this year on the train. The passengers already on the train from Penn station were encouraged to stretch their legs and board again in 15 minutes.  The announcement made as the passengers were coming up the escalator instructed that each needed a boarding pass to re-enter the train.  Some passengers missed the announcement and now the announcer at the top of the stairs told these few people they could not get back on the train without a ticket.

The lucky ones that had their phone, entered their email to show the ticket while others were not so lucky.  What to do?  Some snuck by and got on the train through another unguarded entrance. Others pleaded...

While waiting to get on the train, the person in line behind me, "Serves them right to not get back on, the announcement was made ten times! I would not let them get back on, no way!"

Me to this rigid personality, "What if one of these people are on their way home to bury their mother? We cannot know the reason they may not have heard the announcement. Maybe the speakers did not work on the train before they left their seat, we cannot know why"

This rigid person, "I don't care. There's only one way these people will learn, do not let them back on!"

I told her, "Obviously you are better suited for that job than me, I know I would let them back on with an encouragement to remember the boarding pass for future reference next time."

When we returned from Canada I noticed the announcement was not made on the train as we entered the station, "telling people they need a boarding pass before disembarking," so I gently approached the conductor to let him know about the person at the station  that was not allowing people back on when we came down yesterday and how helpful it would be for him to let people know about the  boarding pass.

To my surprise, 'He said, are you talking about that announcer up stairs?  She is harsh. Yeah we had so many complaints about her yesterday that by the end of the day, Amtrak got rid of that boarding pass requirement altogether."

Thought to myself: "I like that there needs to be some sort of proof to reboard, it would seem for security reasons this is needed...but what do I know? Amtrak owns the trains not me."

I also said a prayer for that harsh passenger behind me in line, that so vehemently declared she would not budge on this matter. I felt for her that she had a life so full of rigid rules that she had come to this in her old age, usually people soften with age but the really hurt ones get harder.

Thankful.