I work in a small town that is bisected by a railroad track. Fortunately, I do not live there, as the frequent train traffic, which shuts the town down for 15 or 20 minutes throughout the day, would drive me nuts.
However, being observant about such mundane and maddening things as train traffic can sometimes help one discern what is going on in the larger world, can point to events that are unfolding beyond the small stage where most of us live out our lives.
Below the jump, I am going to share a fascinating and very revealing tidbit that might make you look at the next train you get stuck waiting for quite differently.
My husband and I were eating lunch one day in a restaurant that overlooks the train track that is the dominant feature of this small downtown. This was in early 2002. As the roar and vibration of the train filled the restaurant, we watched it as it poked its way through town,
and my husband commented, " Hmm, look how long that coal train is. My granddaddy always said that when you see lots of long coal trains, we are about to go to war." And sure enough, we began to see lots of coal trains coming through town, long long ones, and about three weeks later, we invaded Iraq.
The way my husband explained it, there is a law that utility companies must stockpile coal prior to the country going to war, hence the tremendous amount of activity on the tracks. His grandfather had told him that each time we went to war - WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam - this same pattern of heavily increased coal train traffic was repeated.
This last week, we began to notice that this is going on again, trains passing through town about every 20 minutes, loaded with coal,long trains that cut the town in half from one end to the other.
I fear this is a very ominous sign, that the crazies currently running things are indeed about to throw the Armaggedon switch. So next time you are stuck at a railroad crossing waiting for that pokey-ass train to get out of your way, take a good look at what it's carrying,America, and hope that Granddaddy was wrong.