seats

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. -Sun Tzu

 I should note here that I don't know that quote off the top of my head.  I only know it because I did a Google search for quotes about war as a way to start this post, and that one fits perfectly.

As mentioned, oh, countless times by now, I take the subway everyday to and from work. Given that I ride at the same time every day, I've started to notice some familiar faces. This is especially true of the ride home. There are half a dozen or so people who I ride home with every day, and we all always ride in the same train car, the first one. There's the towering, obese middle schooler and his short, scrawny elementary aged brother. There's the middle school girl who occupies the same corner of the train every day, absorbed in her phone to the point where I don't actually recall ever seeing her look up from it. And then there's the subject of this post.

Before I get to him, allow me to briefly cover my concept of subway etiquette vis a vis standing/sitting. The way I see it, I'm an able-bodied male in the prime of my life. That puts me in the category of those least deserving of a seat. As such, on a crowded train, or a train I know will soon be crowded, I prefer to stand. And it's not because of some nonsense about chivalry or gallantry, or that women are some feeble creature who need to be looked after, it's just because I feel awkward if I'm sitting and others a standing. It's a purely selfish desire to avoid that awkward feeling that drives me to stand. All that being said, if the train is sparsely populated, I will surely sit.

Now this other guy who I ride the train with, I'd peg him as a high schooler. He gets on the train at the same stop as me and gets off after I do, so I spend my entire journey with him. Now, where we get on is right about halfway through the line, so the train is already full; there are no seats to be had. But, and here's the thing that really sticks in my craw about this kid, if a seat opens up at one of the next few stops, this kid will quite literally lunge at it the moment it opens up so that he can sit down. I watch him, standing at the end of the train, scanning the rows of seats to his left and right for the slightest indication that someone will get off at the next stop, and the moment they get up to go, like a flash, he's in there.

Now this rankles me, because as I see it, this young high schooler is also in the prime of his life. Again, setting aside such notions as chivalry, this guy is undeniably also in the category of those of us least deserving of seats on a crowded subway. Especially because it's the end of the day and all around us are older, tired people who'd surely appreciate the seat. But no, this little twerp doesn't even give anyone else a chance at the seat because he wants to sit down so he can comfortably play his cell phone games.

But little do these pitiable, overworked subway surfers know, they have a warrior looking out for them. In recent days I've taken it upon myself to interfere with this seat-snatcher's ways. I position myself, and as best I can, others, in ways that impede this fellow from racing for open seats. Tonight this meant standing back to back with a fellow passenger at the start of the aisle, directly in front of the seat snatcher, so that his only access route to seats was blocked by a man-made wall. This proved to be very effective, and no less than 4 seats opened up and were then taken by other passengers, while the seat-snatcher was forced to stand idly by and watch. Not until there were multiple open seats open did he finally avail himself of one.

I began this post with a quote about war, and I'll end it with one about peace. Let's see what Google brings us:

Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means. -Ronald Reagan