An Oracle on the Broadway-Lafayette platform
This was a crazy story. I was running late to yoga class. The margin of error on these trips is sometimes insanely thin.
This story takes place in New York City, riding the M/F line, on Broadway-Lafayette heading towards 2nd avenue. There are times where if I’m on one end of the subway cart, I will make the yoga class but if I’m on the other (wrong) end, I will not.
This is due to the detraining process and the congestion that arises. If you are not at a train door that’s located directly next to the stairs used to exit, you will be caught in a traffic jam. This jam will delay you the crucial two to three minutes that are the difference between getting to class on time, or being annoying and or disrespectful.
When you are dealing with narrow margins, it’s important to realize, it’s all your fault, you should have left earlier, the world doesn’t owe you anything and the people who are walking or driving too slowly are not stupid or deserving of any pressure or frustration because of your inability to be prepared and execute.
On this particularly special day, I found myself on the wrong end of the train. So I had to hustle.
Therefore, at every stop, I had to run out of that train and run maximally towards the front of the train.
There I’d stand by the left door in the middle exit. If I stood at the right exit but the middle door, I’d have an awkward turn to make it up the stairs, the left door is a straight line and a crisp natural curve towards the stairs. This subtle difference is surprisingly impactful.
All of a sudden I saw this very big fellow, who seemed like he was a loose cannon. He was bearded and had chaotic energy. He was yelling and nobody seemed concerned with his presence. I kept running while keeping an eye on this man, making sure no sudden moves were made.
Suddenly, he started yelling in Arabic, I look around, understanding his mostly gibberish, and expect to look panicked New Yorkers steeped in racially based fear about this unhinged Arab man screaming in his native language.
My fears subsided when I began to decipher some of the things he was saying as pure gibberish. Despite being the only other Arab who could actually understand this man, I seemed like the most concerned person!
This man noticed that I was looking at him and he turns to me and without missing a beat, or any explanation says, in Arabic, “What are you scared of Sherif.”. I squinted at him, was this someone I knew who had fallen into a life of addiction, drugs, and was now ranting crazily in the subway? Was someone holding a mirror up to me!? Ha! No this really was a different person.
I looked as closely as I could. I had never seen this man! I was sure of it. “My name is Sherif,” I say to him, trying to point out the unbelievable nature of what had just happened.” … utterly unfazed by my response in Arabic or the fact that I’d told him the made-up name he called me was indeed my correct name. “Ahlan Wa Sahlan ye Sherif”…. which means Nice to meet you Sherif... and then he started doing the silliest standing galloping skip dance for about 3 seconds. He’d not moved in this energetic or facially animated fashion the whole time I’d seen him before this. He was not done blowing my mind though.
“Why don’t you want to go to Egypt” … My jaw dropped. I hadn’t been to my homeland of Egypt in 10 years.
Americans think this is what Egypt is. Here to perpetuate the stereotype. It’s just this. Nothing else.
Americans think this is what Egypt is. Here to perpetuate the stereotype. It’s just this. Nothing else.
It had been an entire decade and since then the country had shifted monumentally. For starters, there had the largest human protest in human history, multiple regime changes, and revolutions.
Egypt is now a radically different country than it once was and I have been neglecting to visit, probably for some fear-based reasons. This message hit me like a ton of bricks.
I was told in no uncertain terms that my fear was unfounded and that I had to visit Egypt. At this point, this was probably two full years ago… maybe a year and a half… I have yet to visit but making some plans which may lead me to be there a little longer term than I had imagined. It’s becoming pretty appealing to venture out as the cost of living both financial and psychological are becoming misaligned with the quality of life. American comedy, music, and culture have a special place in my heart.
I’m going to write a lot more about Egypt in the near future and am publicly declaring that I seek and aim to go to Egypt in 2021 and at worst 2022. Thank you for reading. This was the craziest thing that ever happened to me in a random fashion. I was so blown away and I missed the yoga class due to being reflective and blown away. I made the train but just rode way past my stop, texting all my cousins and relatives and parents telling them what had just happened.
A seemingly unrelated but shocking related note for a future post
There is a story relating to my cousin and me. We made up this game in order to “have fun at other people’s expense” we literally phrased it like this. We thought of a huge idea, but the very first turn we took resulted in such a spectacular occurrence that neither of us would ever play this game again. This is a teaser from a future post I will title Psychic Karma haha. Eye roll.