DIALOGUE WITH A PORTER

People are really interesting. I love talking to people who have vastly different life experiences than I do. Some of the best stories are from people who are incredibly passionate about something that I have no interest in at all. For instance, accounting bores me to tears but if an accountant described his love for his profession to me I would be intrigued. It’s fascinating to discover what people put meaning to in their lives and what things they decide to invest time in. Last weekend I took a trip up to Seattle to ostensibly visit a law school. The school offered to pay my travel expenses so I decided to squeeze in a quick 24 hour trip between two work days. I had some interesting encounters with a woman who was establishing her own food cart in north Portland, a worker at a hostel who enjoyed break dancing, and a workaholic Serbian who had his sights set on Alaska. But the most surprising and enjoyable encounter occurred on my ride back to Portland on Amtrak. Tired and hungover I spent most of my time in the bistro cart, chugging waters and desultorily staring at the scenery passing by. I noticed that the gentleman manning the snack counter was the same individual who had worked on the train on my ride up. I had only spoken enough words to him to politely order a coffee on the way up but this time I decided to ask him a few questions.

At first glance he seemed rather dull. He was a hefty fellow with a large, bushy brown beard and he served food and drinks without much emotion, ringing people up and then returning to his seat behind the counter to gaze out the window. I could tell he was bored and how long his work shift ran. This led to a twenty minute narrative about his life. All I had to do was nod appreciatively and ask simple, leading questions in order to keep the story going.

First, my train friend gave me some details about the lifestyle of a person who works for Amtrak. He had worked in both long haul and short haul train routes. Currently, he works the Vancouver BC to Portland route. He has one day a week where he works an 18 hours shift, two days where he works a short shift, then three days off. In the past he worked the train that traveled from Seattle to Chicago. Doing this trip there and back would take a little over a week. While he was on the train he would work 18-22 hours per day. When he did get a chance to sleep he was relegated to a sleeping cabin that was the size of a spacious coffin. The train would arrive in Seattle and he would have one epic night out and then the next day he would return to the cramped confines of the train. He told me that as long as the people on the crew were cool then it was a tolerable existence but if the crew didn’t get along then the narrow hallways of the cars began to feel like prison cells. He told me that one of the benefits of the long hours and poor conditions were that he got a full week off at a time so he had tons of mini-vacations throughout the year. And with all the overtime money he had accrued he was able to go out to eat, see shows, and generally enjoy himself.

This fellow (let’s call him George because I forgot his name) had done more with his life than working on a train. He had completed two years with Americorps NCCC. One year he worked in several schools, including one for youth offenders. The other year he worked outdoors, mostly across the Midwest, building schools, and maintaining park trails. He is also a perennial student. He has attended eight institutions of higher education, including Evergreen College. While he has lots of credits he is nowhere near attaining a degree because he took a random collection of courses. He opted to take classes that interested him rather than focusing on particular subject areas. Two of the schools he attended give write ups as their form of assessment rather than grades, making transferring credits difficult. George plans to continue his education at a school called Naropa University (also named the Jack Kerouac school of disembodied poetics) in Colorado. This school was established by Alan Ginsberg in the 1970’s. It borrows many ideas from eastern religion and students can choose some unique educational options, such as living in a Buddhist monastery and taking a vow of silence for a semester. George hopes to use his time at Naropa to hone his writing skills in short fiction.

What a life George has had. I was impressed by the variety and breadth of his work and school experience. While I don’t envy his job, I do hope that when I am his age I have just as interesting a story to tell to another young person who is just beginning his or her own life journey.