A Train to Nowhere

I have joined others at The Gypsy Mama for Five Minute Fridays. Our assignment is to write for five minutes flat on the topic for the week and share our responses to the same prompt. 

The word for this prompt is OPEN. Here I go...

The first time I got on a train in Osaka, it was rush hour. I was standing near the door. It opened at the next stop and I saw a platform crowded with hundreds and hundreds of people. I thought, “They'll have to wait for the next train. This one is already packed.” Then I watched in amazement (horror?) as all of the people on the platform crammed into the open door. They just kept pushing in tighter and tighter.

The open door began to close and the “pushers” with their white gloves began to push in any arms and elbows sticking out so the doors could shut. The pushers blew their whistles. The doors shut. And then the train took off down the track. At the next station people disembarked and the process started all over again when the doors opened.

Sometimes I feel like I am back on that train. I feel like my culture is telling me that everyone needs to rush through the same open door. Everyone needs to squeeze onto the same train marked "living the American dream." And the voices of my culture are wearing white gloves pushing us all to get on. 

Maybe it’s time to get off the train to nowhere. Maybe it’s time to believe something different. Maybe it’s time to walk on the path less traveled.  Maybe it’s time to walk like He walked.