Small Heroes

To the guy on the train that gave up his seat... thank you.

Yet again this morning, New Jersey Transit was cancelling trains.  The exact quote used in their announcement was, "New Jersey Transit would like to apologize... we were forced to cancel the 8:31 train to New York..."  Forced.  Uh huh.

When our normal train gets cancelled, they usually have the express train run local, which means, beginning at our stop, people are standing in the aisles.  Today was no exception.

We were all standing there, bracing ourselves for the rocky ride, dealing with the sighs and groans from the sitters, upset that their space was getting crowded.  Every time we came to a stop the guy standing next to me stomped on my foot, trying to pretend that he was far more graceful than the evidence suggested.  He never apologized.

In short, nothing new for a cancelled train day.

Then something awesome happened.

A man a few rows down from where I was offered his seat to a woman standing in the aisle.  She was appropriately grateful.  Then, catching the gratitude wave, another man a few rows away offered his seat to another woman that had been standing.  And then another one!  It was amazing to see; the men looked slightly proud that they had done a good deed for the day, and the women were grateful, appearing fairly surprised that they found chivalry on New Jersey Transit. 

About two stops into the journey, a woman sitting a row away from me exited the train.  The man that had been standing right next to her offered me her seat. "Would you like to sit here?"  "Yes, thank you so much!" I said.  He smiled at me.  "You're quite welcome."

By the end of our ride another two or three women had been offered seats, with very little complaining from the men left standing in the aisle (I say very little complaining because it would not have been a NJT train without some blowhard being pissy about something).

It is so nice to see people catching a wave of courtesy and jumping on.  I don't usually expect that kind of offer on the train, everyone so intent on getting from point A to point B that we barely see each other.  The men that gave up their seats made a woman very happy, made her feel noticed.  And sometimes, that is enough.

So, to the guy on the train that gave up his seat... thank you.  You made my day.