Talks on a Train

    “Our life, you see, it is like a train!”

“How so, Priest? Its more like a platform. We don’t choose where to go. We get on where we want and get off. Our lives are quite different. The train carries up, but we do not live like the train.”

“But the train takes you where life wants you to go! You may board as you wish but he is right, our life is like a train! We go in a set path ; we live to our destiny! Our destiny is our destination!” 

“Oh, what are you talking about? The Actress is right, we live not like the train! You’re just an old Religious kook!” 

“But what if our lives are destined to be? Fate is the star that guides us after all!” 

“Easy for you to say. You’re overzealous in faith, aren’t you? The star guided me to Afghanistan, and it guided me almost to my grave. What if I want to veer off course? A Soldier is born to listen, but what happens when he dares to ask!” 

“So, our lives are like the platform, as I said!” 

“The Actress is right! Each stop is a point in our life! Every major event, every major moment, we get off the platform, and board the next train!”

“So clearly the Optimist of this group and the actress agree with one another. What if we don’t have control? What if there is no fate or destiny? What if we just ride.” 

“Easy for you to say, you’re clearly a nihilist. Our lives are like a train because it costs a price! You need a ticket ; every stop is another ticket! Money, money, money. And of course, a famous Actress would be oblivious to this! And the Priest? Well, he cares about tithe! Why can’t this ride be free? Why can’t we choose where to go? I’m only being realistic about it!” 

“But isn’t that the beauty of it? Maybe it isn’t the money that is the cost, but our own life, our fate! We pay with our souls! As God has ordered us to do!” 

“You’re really a Kook huh?” 

“Well, what do you think? You haven’t weighed in! How does this Pessimist feel about it?” 

“Here it is, we are the passengers. We’re not the train at all! We go where the train takes us! Every moment of our life planned out on a boarding pass! We go where it goes, and we can’t change that!” 

“I say we’re the engineers! We’re the one driving this train!” 

“You’re a naïve Soldier. You said yourself you followed where it went and had no choice.” 

“Young Lady, with all respect I was young, and I was ignorant! But a Soldier can change!” 

“But say that the tracks are filled with snow? Is that our lives stopping? Coming to a halt for an impasse? Maybe those are our struggles! And who fixes the issue? We don’t control the train : God does.” 

“But why should a God put impasses in our life? The actress is more right than you young lady!” 

    “Let’s look it at like this. If our life is our destinations, and the impasses on the track are the challenges we face, then our fate is our boarding pass, and the ticket is God welcoming us to his world! Letting us ride!” 

“Seriously?! You’re gettin’ more and more Kookier by the minute!”

“My life has been driven by my Acting prowess! Fame and fortune came with me! And maybe the priest is right, maybe God stamped my boarding pass for fame?” 

“Of course, you think God gave you your wealth! My daddy didn’t give me or my sisters any money cus he had none. We ain’t got no money to ride! It took me four months to save up for this! Why would your God do this to us?!” 

“So says the Pessimist again! You don’t see or understand our purpose? Our meaning! Life is more than just God or our birth! It is how we make the most of it! We are the passengers and those in our lives, those who mean the most are the passengers we sit with ; those we talk with like now! How else would a Nihilist meet and have a conversation with a Pessimist or a Priest! How would a famous Actress meet a poor old Soldier! A Young Woman who feels there are obstacles we can’t overcome, and an Optimist who wishes the most of our lives!” 

“Well then ‘Mr. Optimist’ since that is what you called yourself, what say you! Give us more!” 

“I agree with the Young Woman! You haven’t spoken!” 

“Easy for you to say cop. You haven’t spoken a word ‘til now!” 

“Well Soldier I don’t need to speak! I can listen, and I can watch!” 

    “Well, getting to my explanation we take the train where it goes, and where it goes, well, we surely don’t know! And yet in this uncertainty we sit down together, and we find passengers to converse with, to talk and to share our lives with! And they accompany us on our journey! Sure, there are blocks and passes, and sometimes they get onto the platform to board another train, but soon down the tracks, they’ll come back into our lives! Don’t you get it? Life is like a train!”

“It is an honorable point. Maybe you’re right?” 

“Well Pessimist I want to add that what about the ticket? And what if we want to change directions!” 

“Well, see it this way Nihilist! You can change course, you just board a new train. You leave your old passengers, and you start with new ones! And maybe those closest to you will board your train once-in-a-while, while getting onto their own train! Everyone has a train, just some of them ride with you!” 

“But where is fate and God in this? For he chooses your life, your life is to his control!” 

“Again, the Kook speaks up with his dribble! For me God has nothing to do with this! But the idea that your friends can board your train means that their lives are tied to yours, and surely the world doesn’t revolve around you!” 

“Attention all passengers we’re stopping at Makarevich Station. Please gather your belongings and have your tickets and boarding passes ready as you exit the train.” 

“Maybe the Kook is right….maybe there is a God to this story after all….”