Newlywed

And when I began to wonder what would happen if I never went back to that station, the whole image in my mind took on the quality of a haunting scene from an old movie, one fraught with meaning. All the living beings there suddenly became objects of my affection. Someday when I die, and only my sod exists, and my spirit comes home on a summer evening during the Bon Buddhist festival, that’s probably what the world will look like to me.

If you—or anyone on this train, for that matter—thought of life as a kind of train, instead of worrying only about your usual destinations, you’d be surprised how far you could go, just with the money you have in your wallet right now.

Oh, I just ride around and observe. To me, trains are like a straight line with no end, so I just go on and on, you know. I’m sure that most people think of trains as safe little boxes that transport them back and forth between their homes and offices. They’ve got their commuter passes, and they get on and get off each day, but not me.