The Cold Commute

             New York City is known for being a melting pot where races, cultures, and ethnicities come together. The New York City subway system is one of the most transited parts of the city where all kinds of people come across one another and have the opportunity to interact and mingle. During peek hours of the day, the subway system is over crowded and I have always thought of the crowded train scenario as a socially awkward place. It’s a place where random people squeeze up and press up on strangers who they have never seen in their lives. I have always found that these crowded subways are places that have the potential of being areas where people can freely interact with all kinds of people during their hectic commutes. What caught my attention in particular is the social detachment that people have with one another. When thinking through the lens of Joshua L. Liebman and how he defines God as a force, which is all around us, the subway system has to be one of the most religiously dethatched places in his eyes.

            When thinking through the lens of Liebman, I would argue that God is not present in the New York City subways system. He describes God, as love and the action of caring for others and such actions are hardly present in the subway. Although there are some actions such as giving up a seat for someone else, be it out of kindness or sympathy for someone else, or holding the door for someone before it closes as they enter or exit, the majority of the time the subways is crowded with people who have no interest in socializing or showing care for anyone else. People push themselves onto others, walk past homeless people who sometimes sleep in the subway and ignore others who are beggars on the train.

            Rather than the train being a place where God is present through the actions and interactions of the people of NY, it’s a place that lacks social unity. It’s an awkward social place where having someone a few inches away or directly on you, doesn’t motivate or spark the minimal interest in starting conversation or care for someone else. During the evening rush hours where we see people tired and grumpy showing no interest in the person next to them. Liebman described the absence of love and care, God, is what causes evil.

            Although I want to say that the subways is a cold and dethatched place, I always keep in mind the potential that it has to be or become a warm and loving place filled with God’s presence in the eyes of Liebman. There are people who come onto the subways with displays of performing arts and entertainment that create the warm and close environment that lacks in the subways system. Now during the holidays is a special time where people go around spreading warm and thoughtful messages that help bring together the public and unify the distant subway space. I see the subways as a dark place and think that Liebman would consider it to be a relatively evil place.