Source Code

Thomas and I have not yet posted a review of the bike shops that have been oh so helpful to us yet because we have not had proper Internet access to do so.  I’m sure y’all can wait on that, though.  We promise (to ourselves as well, because we need to do some maintenance on the bikes that we’ve yet to do) to make the next couple of rest stops much more productive.  I promised Polaris Project some mid-ride updates as well.

Today Thomas and I did some more bowling and watched a movie to enjoy our rest day.  We’ll spend the night locked up in our room again to avoid the night club scene, though last night didn’t seem too bad.  Our Massachusetts readers probably will not believe that we each only paid $1.00 to watch a matinee film (if it weren’t a matinee, the price only would have been $1.50).  Unbelievable to us Mass. Natives.  There was no way we’d pass up that opportunity to watch a movie that seemed really good, the newest blockbuster with my favorite, Jake Gyllenhaal.  Source Code is the name of it.

I won’t give away the film, or at least I’ll try not to.  At one point in the film, Gyllenhaal’s character asks someone on the train with him why he’s always so irritable, and he replies that the world is a crappy place.  Then Gyllenhaal bets Mr. Irritable a lot of money that Mr. Irritable couldn’t make the entire train laugh.  Mr. Irritable takes the bet and proceeds to put on a little comedy show and everyone in the train starts gathering around to watch and listen.  It’s a beautiful scene in the middle of an intense film, because as you’re freaking out about what’s going to happen and everyone in the train is acting like normal people—getting angry about being late, not wanting to talk to anyone because there’s too much on their mind, et cetera—and suddenly the train community becomes a real community. 

Art is art, I know.  Not every day can you give someone money to put on a comedy show in the middle of a train, I know.  But the point remains the same: little actions that we take can make the world a much better place than we ordinarily think it is.  When we think that there are 27 million slaves in the world we can easily be overwhelmed and let ourselves be depressed about how awful the world is.  But one little act at a time we can be the change we want to see in the world.  That’s what Source Code has taught us today: little actions, little changes in attitudes and behaviors, can really and seriously affect the world for the better.