Mid-Week Update From AC

“An educated mind cannot be enslaved.” Candace Owens

By: Gabriela Yareliz

It’s one hundred and a gazillion degrees out. My train has AC, which is nice because my other trains this week felt like they were blowing hot air on us. I quite literally melted into my seat yesterday. This was after my employer shut off our AC during the day. It has been a sweaty July.

The world is chaotic. A conflict that should have ended years ago in the Middle East still rages on, barreling forward into an exacerbated humanitarian crisis. A tsunami in Russia, and the west coast and Hawaii under tsunami alert. A shooting on Park Avenue. Things feel heightened, and maybe, the heat makes it worse. Heat always makes things exasperating.

As we make delayed stops on this train, those with seats close their eyes and feign sleep. A woman dressed in white and wearing Coco Chanel Mademoiselle (I can sniff that out anywhere) yells into her Zoom call as we lose signal in the tunnel. Her sandal straps are undone, and it’s clear the back of her heels are bleeding. Another woman dressed in denim from head to toe parts the train crowd by yelling, “Excuse me, guys!” A lesson in assertiveness.

As the commute is one where I am precariously smashed between people with not much to hold onto, I decided to listen to a podcast. We roll along.

I can’t read my Kindle, but I am currently finishing a book on Ayurveda, and it’s excellent. If I snag a seat, I am going back to that.

*pause as we violently swing from side to side and almost collapse like dominoes*

We all have stern faces directed at the savage driver of this train. The driver can’t see us, though. The woman with bleeding heels looks angry. None of us wanted to be swinging from polls this early (or at all, but especially not this early).

As the world continues to rock us all, some more than others, I am reminded of gratitude for whatever peace we have, for the AC when we stumble upon it, for the freedom to access information and grow our minds. May we pray for one another and before we leave our front door’s door frame. You never know what awaits. Stay free.