Friday, January 18, 2008

Two Hours Waiting On The Rock

Droplets of rain move along a palm leaf.

On my last day in Dubai I ended up taking a taxi to one of the large malls to kill some time. Once I was done strolling around I returned to the mall taxi stand to get a ride back to the hotel that was some distance away. Because of the heavy rain city traffic was at a stand still and almost 200 people were patiently waiting in line for arriving taxis.

I was horrified as I joined the endless trail of people and waited, moving slowly forward, inches at a time. For almost two hours I stood there watching my fellow ride-less friends. I was soon struck by the fact that with me were other men, women, old, young, toddlers, teens, Muslims, Christians, Hindu, Brits, Indians, Americans, Pakistanis, mini-skirts, hijabs... Everyone was neatly waiting in line, smiling at one another and chatting where they could. Looks were exchanged with strangers accompanied by smiles and shrugs of "what can you do?. It was all perfectly orderly and civil. Why can't the rest of the world function like that?

Were all on this spinning chunk of rock together. Why can't we just accept that fact, make friends with those around us, and offer smiles and encouragement where we can?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the answer to that is fear. It's such a dehabilitating emotion, isn't it?

Tranquil Seeker said...

I wholly agree with your question Zen Traveler. I believe the answer for me, or even us as a collective whole, is it has to begin with me. If I act in the way you described that everyone was acting, I can effectively spread that universal Peace. Thanks for the work that you're doing on this blog. I enjoy it.