Subway Tales: Hopeless Pessimist Meets Hopeless Optimist

The guy sitting next to me on the subway asks if I have any hand sanitizer. I enthusiastically respond with a yes. I just replenished my stash of hand wipes that morning and I was more than happy to share. As he started cleaning his hands, he explained how he’d removed a used needle a few minutes earlier and while he was careful, he wanted to clean his hands. He spoke of how the needles could be dangerous, he has a diabetic sister and whether the one he found was intentional or unintentional, he didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I remarked, how kind, more people in the world just need to be kind. He shook his head, this is not a perfect world, I am a hopeless pessimist. I chuckled and said hopeless pessimist, meet hopeless optimist.

That was the end of the conversation. As I sat I thought about the two perspectives. A friend in town I’d plan to meet later in the day texted me she was at breakfast; I told her I’d be there in 20 minutes and I dashed out and ran to the subway. Thru the fare gates I did a light jog. I usually don’t sit if I have only a couple of stops. However, when this woman got up, I thought it almost rude to hoover on a moving train when there was an empty seat right there. For me, the fact I was even there was kind of cool. I am usually the person at the able with hand wipes and spray sanitizer. I thought for him, maybe it was more methodical. See a needle, pick it up, ask the next person for hand sanitizer. No big deal. I thought in my head, I could tell him, have a good day when I got off at my stop, but I thought, to a pessimist, that is way to optimistic. As I got up and headed off the train, he said, have a good rest of your day and we laughed.

I had a magical week* and I am hopelessly optimistic about the week to come. This week, consider, are you the pessimist or the optimist, does it really matter?

---

---

---

---

---

Scenes from a Magical Week