Single Subway Stories — The Lexington Line

“Sorry, do you have any hand sanitizer?”

I nod silently and reach into my purse to squeeze two pumps of hand sanitizer into a stranger’s hand. She sighs and expresses that she's had a long week at work (it was Monday). I mutter something about it being such a gross city, being sure to have closed enough body language so that she doesn’t try to engage in conversation. Something I find myself doing often, on a plane, at a cafe, and on the subway. Purposefully not engaging in conversation because I don’t want to talk or maybe don’t want to be caught in an awkward conversation that doesn’t go anywhere.

While back in my own world, I look over to the girl who had sat next to me, and I notice she's wearing a lanyard that says “panelist”. I ignored someone so quickly who was a panel speaker at a conference. A person that probably had something really interesting to say, a person that likely knew an incredible amount about a specific topic, something I likely knew little about, and yet I didn’t inquire.

I think about another timeline where I do ask her about her job and her conference. There’s a timeline where she doesn’t want to talk either, or after a short sentence, we both go back to our own worlds. This is such a fascinating place to live, because we are along a million different walks of life, surrounded by stories; we are a part of everyone else's stories as well.

I once spoke to a woman on the subway. She was a beautiful older woman with one of those grocery strollers- so you know she was a true New Yorker. We were wearing the same furry green mittens, which I have been wearing for five winters and have never seen anyone else wearing them. She was a person who needed someone to talk to, and I feel lucky to be the person that she could talk to. She told me about her volunteering job at the Museum of the City of New York and told me I needed to visit the Conservatory Garden, which is right across the street in Central Park.

I learned about a new garden, which I am very excited to learn about, and I felt like I was just a little bit more connected to the city. I don’t know if these experiences will make me talk to more people on the subway. But it does make me think.

Someone next to me this morning was texting a woman in Russian, and someone next to me on the way home was texting someone in Chinese. There could have been a billionaire and also someone in debt. I think it’s often easy to be really distracted in New York City, overstimulated by the sheer amount of people you encounter every day. But the subway is a place to remember the beauty of diversity we’re surrounded by. The subway is nothing if not a capsule of humanity; perhaps there's a reason our phones aren’t supposed to work down there.

Next time you’re on the subway, look around. Look at people's phones and their badges, and if you find someone completely intriguing, would you ask them for hand sanitizer? Leave a comment below.