Singing in the underground

Lately I’ve been a witness of a conversation about behaviors in the underground. One of the speakers was saying that everybody just sits and stares at their smartphones or other shiny displays. His opponent was proving that it’s not true, as many people, especially the old ones, have the need to talk and they start conversations with strangers.

It reminded me about a funny experience I had on the underground in Barcelona. There was a teenage girl (around 18 years old) with overweight, wearing a pink T-shirt with Mickey Mouse. On the other side of the door there was sitting an old man with a storm of gray hair, wearing too short trousers. If you remember the portraits of Beethoven – that’s exactly what this man looked like. The girl was listening to some romantic songs from her phone, mostly Celine Dion and a few Spanish ones, and she was singing them aloud totally out of tune. All the people were staring at her puzzled, but she didn’t care about it at all. The funniest of all was the reaction of the Beethoven-like man. He was reading a book through his twisted glasses, but every few seconds he had a look at her with a murder wish on his face. His eyes were saying that she was committing a crime against the music (maybe he really was a reincarnation of Beethoven) and peace. The girl didn’t even seem to notice any of it – she continued to wail her doleful songs and she seemed very happy.

I have two observations coming out of this story. First – it is crucial to accept yourself. If you like how you look, if you know you are good at something, nobody can stop you from achieving what you want. Because you will not care about what people say, you will care only about your goal. And, you will be happy. Besides, every inventor or a successful person had a time in their lives when people were laughing at them or calling them “crazy” or even “idiots”. But as Ghandi said: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” So it’s crucial to be self confident and to do that you have to accept yourself. You have to be aware that you’re not perfect, as nobody is, but you are special and unique, and you can change the world and the life of others. The girl singing in the metro didn’t care at all that everybody was staring at her either with laughter or with anger. She was just happy and the opinions of people who didn’t accept her as she was didn’t have any meaning. And even though the Beethoven-guy seemed also to be a little eccentric, as the most of the population would say, he was also easily judging the girl. And who of all of the people in the underground was the happiest, you think? The observers holding strongly to the rules they were taught or the girl breaking the rules and living the way she wanted it?

My second thought is about spending time in the public transport. It is true that most of us just hide by staring into some glowing display. But as you see, in the public transport you can observe people, their behaviors, problems and joys, you can meet someone valuable. Or you can just spend this time with yourself. I mean, giving you the time to let your thoughts flow. How many times during the day you are immersed in your thoughts? Probably zero. So make yourself this little gift and spend this time with yourself. If you do so, you will get to know yourself better, find out what you really dream about, understand your everyday behaviors, frustrations and reactions. You can be surprised how many ideas or solutions can come to you when you spend the time just with yourself.

To sum up, I highly recommend you see this video that I was deeply moved by: http://blog.petflow.com/a-video-every...

Have a nice week!