Joy to the World?

Troubled times, but I am mostly doing OK.

The world is in chaos, guns are a' blazing, and hope went down on the livability meter. I have written six posts since I was last on Blogger, and most were intended to be funny.  However, they were never finished and were left in my draft folder to be revisited on another day.  I also did not want to publish anything silly or meaningless during these past few weeks because of all the "Breaking News".  These have been anxious and very sad times.

In the midst of all of this, we all must live our lives, which can be dicey on its own. However, if we turn off the noise, and lift our heads up from our phones, we can see that there are still joyful surprises and kindness in this world.  The Retired Man and I experienced this last week when we had to make one of our many trips into the city (Philly) to deal with some issues in our lives. We took the 8:04 train and were flabbergasted that the car had not the usual, bland, modern seats, but rather cushy leather ones and the decor throughout was very retro. We felt that we were transported to "Back to the Future".  As we settled in, the conductor's voice came over the loudspeaker, welcoming us aboard, telling us where the train would stop, and in the most pleasant tone, told us to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.  He spoke a few more times during the trip,  reiterating his cheerful message and thanking us for riding Septa.  This was a commuter train, not the high-priced Amtrak line and in all my many years of riding the rails, I have never been been greeted with such enthusiasm and friendliness.  I thought to myself, "Mr. Rogers lives".  It changed our whole mood and helped make our day a little brighter.  What a wonderful gift that was!  Small things, when we least expect it, can mean so much. I wish I could have thanked him.

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