The Commute
The Dominion Post (January 18, 2016) re-published a column by Sydney Morning Herald columnist, James Adonis, “In praise of boring day jobs”. It was the preamble to the main thrust of the article that interested me most.
He writes about his observations of commuters in trains . I remembered my own first experiences as a train commuter in Wellington, New Zealand. There weren’t any cell phones or other computer gadgetry then. Most of my fellow passengers read or listened to music on walkmen or did both.
Even then, as Adonis still finds today, there were other commuters who just “sat in the carriage staring straight ahead, occasionally glancing out the window”.
He found it odd that these people “actually seemed content... They were happy just sitting alone with their thoughts”.
If you are a commuter, what better time to use for restful R&R from today’s even more hectic lifestyle?
My five-day-a-week personal commute used to be a mixed bag – sometimes just thinking, sometimes reading (newspaper, magazine, novel, or textbook) and, rarely, preparing for something I would be doing at work.
It was when I began my then secondary job as a novelist that I changed to taking an interest in the appearances of those around me and tried to overhear conversations to help me add interest to characters in my books and improve their dialogue.
He writes about his observations of commuters in trains . I remembered my own first experiences as a train commuter in Wellington, New Zealand. There weren’t any cell phones or other computer gadgetry then. Most of my fellow passengers read or listened to music on walkmen or did both.
Even then, as Adonis still finds today, there were other commuters who just “sat in the carriage staring straight ahead, occasionally glancing out the window”.
He found it odd that these people “actually seemed content... They were happy just sitting alone with their thoughts”.
If you are a commuter, what better time to use for restful R&R from today’s even more hectic lifestyle?
My five-day-a-week personal commute used to be a mixed bag – sometimes just thinking, sometimes reading (newspaper, magazine, novel, or textbook) and, rarely, preparing for something I would be doing at work.
It was when I began my then secondary job as a novelist that I changed to taking an interest in the appearances of those around me and tried to overhear conversations to help me add interest to characters in my books and improve their dialogue.
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