Chill factor

There's a lot about Stoic philosophy that is, to quote Pliny the Younger, absolute and total hogwash. However, comma, there's a little bit from Epictetus's Enchiridion that I've always carried with with me. He goes: "And when you call your servant, consider that it is possible he may not come at your call; or, if he does, that he may not do what you wish. But it is not at all desirable for him, and very undesirable for you, that it should be in his power to cause you any disturbance."

So what does this have to do with anything? As with most posts, dear reader, I'm writing about an experience I had on the T. I was approaching the trolley at the BC stop. The train was stopped and the doors were closed. I could tell that the T light was about to turn green, so, like the savvy urban mover that I am, I just hung around. Enter some girl, and her pal, running from across the street, struggling like mites against the unchanging, unchangeable, irresistible force of the T schedule. Suffice it to say, the train left the station as they screeched to a halt right outside the door.

Hoo boy. You'd think this girl had dropped a bag of groceries in the sewer, the way she carried on, screaming and cursing about how bad the T sucks. She was legitimately upset! I think she took it personally!

I wanted to put a shoulder around her and say "Just chill, man. There'll be another T." That's the thing about the T. It's fickle, it's capricious, there's no predicting where it's gonna go. So why let it bother you? If you let the T bother you, if you yield beneath the crushing juggernaut of its whimsy, you'll lead a horribly resentful, spiteful life. It's not in your interest to let the T cause you any disturbance.

And for any wily readers looking back and trying to catch me in my own rhetorical web of lies and contradictions, I am, as ever, 18 steps ahead of you. (I'm referring to my previous post railing against change-payers on the T). You see, there's no controlling the actual, physical T trains. When that light turns green, that T has to go. It's just the way it is. However, control can be exerted over change-payers, on many levels. A guy like me can take up the cause and proselytize against the evils of change-paying. The change-payers can hear the message and realize the error of their ways and convert. The MBTA can eliminate the change option altogether. Get my point? It is in my interest to let this issue disturb me, because from that disturbance groweth change. Pun intended.