A Train Ride & Two Films

I prefer trains to airplanes. The only advantage of planes over railway cars is speed. What I particularly like about trains is the ample space it affords every passenger. If you want to have a feel about how tight a Guantanamo prison cell is, just take an economy class flight. But if you want to sit back, enjoy the view, move around freely, go to the toilet without disturbing your seatmates, and drink coffee in a real bar, then take a train ride.  Ah okay, not all trains are created equal. Some train rides, say in India, can be a threat to life but others, like Thalys in France, can be as smooth as a feather floating on air.

Early this morning I took a seven-hour train journey from Rome to Asti, Italy to fulfill my role as a member of the jury for the Infinity Film Festival.  When the InterCity train began it’s 650 kilometer journey, I shared the 6-seat cabin with four other passengers – 3 men and a woman. Almost an hour later two of them disembarked at Civitavecchia.  Three stops later we were joined by another woman. The routine had been like that – while some alighted, others came in to take their place.

The sky was grey throughout the day and low level clouds blanketed the sinuous western Italian mountains. Along the way I saw wide open fields, wave-battered shorelines, compact towns, melon-colored homes, age-old castles, winding tunnels, lush vineyards and other delicious panoramas.  At the Pisa Central Station, a young lady joined us in the cabin. She looked like Natalie Portman from every angle. Her perfume filled the cabin with a million fragrant roses. She had that effect on people that the train attendant offered to give her any drink of her choice for free, while I had to settle for a 4-euro sandwich and bottled water. She sat next to me and the landscape became more lush than ever, even under a gloomy sky.

For me train rides mirror life itself. We call life a journey and rightly so. For we are always on the move, from birth to death we are in constant motion. As one gets more mature, it becomes clearer that a person must have a coherent purpose and a realizable goal to find personal meaning.  In life as in trains, you get to share space with friends, strangers, or even people you did not choose to be with. And what makes the "ride" worthwhile are the friendships forged, hurts healed, faults forgiven, love consumed, and the lessons learned along the way.

In life, as in trains, a journey is only worth-taking if you have a self-defined destination. Even if sometimes you don’t get to where you want to go, at least you have a direction in life.  The only consolation for people who have no goal is that they won’t feel lost. For how can you feel lost if you have nowhere to go?

In life, as in trains, we must learn to trust. As a passenger you have no choice but to have faith in the driver. It is presumed that he knows the way well enough and also follows it. Morever the driver is bound to bring you safely to your preprogrammed destination.  I think for us to truly enjoy this ephemeral ride we call life, we should be God-driven and Spirit-led.  We must trust in God for He does not only know the way - He is the way.

When I reached Asti a quarter past 2 in the afternoon, I was picked up by a driver and was brought to Alba where the Infinity Film Festival is to be held.  Twenty minutes later I was already arranging my things in my room at the Albergo San Lorenzo, a small but gorgeous hotel. At exactly 6 in the evening I watched "Willenbrock", a German film about a second-hand car salesman whose life was radically changed by a series of events beyond his control.  Then I took my supper afterwards. At 10:30 in the evening I watched another film entitled "Saimir" – a movie made by an Italian director about the life of illegal Albanian migrants in Italy.