Tully Considers Subways

Yes, you heard that right. Have you never really thought about subways? Like, "think" think about subways?

You wake up in the morning, take the subway. Get crammed in with dozens of people. Drunk, sober, high, sober, drunk AND high, sober, smelly, all at 8 am. Truly, Portugal is the greatest country in the world.

But, they're still one of the greatest things to ever happen. Seriously, think about it. You go deep underground, catch an underground, electric train and zip around beneath a city until you emerge half a mile away. And, if you're lucky, you can actually do that while sitting down.

That's what matters here. Subway time is downtime. You can't do anything useful when you're using the subway. Anything productive, at least. I heard some people here over at shrink school use that time to analyze people they see (because, obviously, as first year students, they're masters of psychology and their opinions are true and wise, /sarcasm). Others yet use that time to read or write (yours truly). Others still might use that time for a quick lay (yes, that's going to be a running gag, get used to it).

It's all over in minutes. Soon enough, you'll forget you even used the damned thing, and go about your life as if nothing special happened.

In many ways, using the subway is like taking a dump. Think about it. It actually makes sense.

The exception, of course, is when you have intestinal problems, but that's a different thing we will NOT be talking about here.

So, the thing here is how to use that downtime. How to be productive in those 10-20 minutes of desperately trying to avoid making eye contact with strangers who might want to take your money and/or valuables. I'll go with personal experience here: my current manuscript was written primarily while using the subway and my country's train service. Roughly 90% of the thing was written on rail, which is why the story's so bumpy (I am so sorry for this horrible pun).

This can be extended to all downtime, really, including "bored time" (read below). Whenever I'm bored, I begin a project, which invariably leads to my hard drive being filled with half-baked, half-finished crap (including about 3 or 4 fanfics that I'm really not proud of). But the point of beginning the project, at least to me, isn't to finish it. Stuff I do while I'm bored isn't meant to last, it's meant to be a temporary distraction. Whenever I want to do something serious, I actually decide to do so without any external variables. And that's all that matters.

Because when you're bored, you either think and go down the drain, or find something to fill your time with. And whatever that is can be anything. The possibilities are endless, infinite. Hell, I once took up sparrow hunting for three weeks (final count: 8. Still feel terrible). But whatever it is doesn't matter. What matters is that you're occupied. Busy work. Useless work.

And that's what you do in the subway. To avoid having to concentrate on the sweat, or the alcohol breath. And that's what you do at home, to avoid having to think. To avoid having to fixate on useless stuff, on stuff that makes your brain hurt and your head incapable of sleeping.

And that's why I write a blog.

See you next time. Thank you for tuning in.