Cellular Phone Etiquette 101: The Commuter Train

Two Fridays ago I took the Long Island Railroad commuter railroad into New York City.  I was going to see an off Broadway play.  I sat next to a husband and wife, both in their late 40's and they were sitting across from one another.  The train ride was only about 40 minutes long.  I didn't have much eye contact with the couple sitting next to me outside of a our initial friendly "hello" when I sat down.

About halfway through the ride, a woman, in her mid 20's, and who was sitting behind us got on her cellular phone and called another female friend.  She then began talking to this female friend, (rather loudly I might add) about the sale of Victoria Secret lingerie she caught online earlier in the day online.  A female friend later advised me that Victoria's Secret had huge sale for that 3 day weekend, and that if you had coupons and shopped via the Internet, you really could have saved some serious bucks.  However, with all of that being said - this young woman was indeed loud, indiscreet and was explicit about what she purchased, their colors and size and fit.

Initially she only mentioned the sale and her discounts.  Which me and the wife of the couple I was sitting next to overheard and we both chuckled.  It was slowly hitting us that we both heard the same thing.  Then she mentioned more information about the VS items that she purchased, which now caused me and the husband to look at each other incredulously.  Meanwhile his wife continued  to quietly chuckle.  Then the husband and I began chuckling too as the young woman began to talk  more about the sizes and colors and how they would fit her hips.  By now the three of us were building up to a quiet "guffaw" by this point.  By the time the woman closed off the conversation with how she couldn't wait to wear them all (she bought about 15 sets if I'm not mistaken) we were all in tears trying to restrain ourselves as other passengers around us were also listening in and laughing.

I quickly posted the experience on Facebook for which one of my friends retorted "I guess Victoria's Secret isn't a secret any more."   I was quick to share that hilarious, quick witted remark with the couple next to me, for which we all again laugh - but this time rather loudly.  The young woman was clueless as she segued her conversation onto another topic.  She then abruptly ended her conversation as she knew we were about 9 minutes from entering the tunnel and her cellular service would be interrupted anyway.

Later on Facebook, many of my other friends who commute via train or bus commented that this occurrence of people talking loudly on a cell phone while riding on a crowded train or bus has become more of a common occurrence than I knew.  One friend said to me, "I hear about people's personal lives and their life issues while riding the train into the city."  I personally haven't had to commute via bus or train in well over 25 years, so I wasn't aware of how rude people have become while talking on their cellular phones.  But somehow or another, this has become "common".

Hey all of you fellow cellular phone users listen up and listen up but good!  It is rude, stupid and embarrassing to loudly talk about all of your personal issues and business on a crowded train or bus.  Keep a lid on it will ya??

Success! My New "Positive" Blog Is a Hit!

For a half minute, I wondered if I was alone in creating a new blog about positive things.  I didn't know if people would want to read about positive things or see positive pictures exclusively.  But I went with my gut feeling and now it is clear that my new blog www.ElevateOurWorld.blogspot.com is definitely a hit.  It has struck a cord in people.  I would like to thank all of my family, friends and followers for making it a popular hit online.  As I said, we get hit left and right with negative news and sad events everyday - it's just way too easy to knock us off of our daily positive grind.  So I wanted to create a voice, a bell, a music tone out there - to help remind us all on how to get back on track and get through our day.

Once again, any of you who would like to contribute positive pictures or stories to that blog, please feel free to email me and do so.  Heck you can even call my blog number and leave a short message.  I Or Skype or Kik.  Whatever it takes to get the message through.

Now this blog can go back to what I've done so well in the past.  This blog can go back to entertaining you!

Smile everyone!

Why Does Hate Still Sell?

In the middle of last summer, I had intended to write a column about racism and hatred.  Putting that piece together took months and I'm really not even completely finished nearly a year later. What I will write about today is of how much "hatred" sells in our country and around our world.

When I was a younger man, I used to hear my mother and a few ultra religious parents refer to every negative incident, person or behavior as "the Devil at work" behind those things.  Being a young and immature, I would at who she was talking about and say to myself - "I don't see any devil here, just mean people."  I was too young, immature and unwise to understand the difference between the literal and spiritual meaning of what my mother and her friends were trying to say.

Mind you, I grown up to evolve further as a more wise and spiritual person.  Not as religious practicing as I should be, but spiritual enough to know and accept Divine guidance and inspiration at different times.  What I can finally say after 49 years of living is that now I understand what my mother and some of her "ultra religious" friends were talking about.  The Devil isn't necessarily a "being" more than he is a living negative energy that can be fed by a paralyzing, dark space that is within all of us.  This dark space can easily be ignited and infectiously ignited in others via nativity, anger, feelings of injustice or a false sense of superiority towards others.

In some of us, the equally opposing "bright" space inside us normally outshines that dark space.  But for so many of us, once you remove some of the energy of the bright light within us, the darkness within far too easily overwhelms us.  Nothing I'm saying here is even new.  Having patience and being willing to endure things against you and keep your faith and/or your principles is as old as the example of book of Job in the Holy Bible.

However, even with such a fabled story of Job being thousands of years old, today we still easily fail at maintaining and improving the good within us.  So many of us easily get snagged by the clutches of hatred, prejudice, sexism and superiority attitudes via the news headlines.  We stumble at being at peace within ourselves and towards our fellow human beings.  Whether we consciously, or unconsciously know it - we are continuously tricked into being "reactive" instead of "proactive" as we feed off this cycle of hatred.  If we were more proactive, we could be extinguishing it.  Thus, we become perpetuating instruments of the very same negative energy and evil that we wish to diminish.

Inscribed on the stone surrounding the monument of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are one of his most famous quotes, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that."

Again, not a new example, rather an old one.  In the Holy Bible, Romans 12:17-21,
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by doing good.

Unfortunately it seems that the only time we can gather the energy to create positive changes to respond to negative behavior - is only after the prevailing negative issues reach a critical mass?  Seems like only the immediate threat of life and death can motivate people to properly step in and do the right thing.  In some instances, by waiting so late to step in, we sometimes allow the negative energy to take a repetitive and self-fulfilling life of it's own.

There are everyday slights against other people that go unabated or unchallenged everyday.  We have people who are stigmatized, ostracized or  minimized everyday because of their skin color, religion, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic standing.  Even some of the nicest among us seem indifferent to these behaviors and continued cycle of negative "little evils" towards each other.  We only seem to jump up and attack each other only after one headline grabbing incident occurs.  Then and only then everyone pours their pent up anger and differing opinions at one another like daggers instead of sharing food for thought.  This only eventually displays greater weaknesses within that person.

The real truth is that our media is simply trying to grab our attention to read or watch their news service.  That's just their business.  However, the actual problems that we need to address are right in our everyday lives.  We need to drive out the negative people, thoughts and deeds with positive actions and responsible behaviors.  Not with more negative energy on top of the negative.  There are still many of us, who by ignorance, inadvertence or by choice - continue to recycle the same negative karma that robs all of us in the first instance.

Yet here is another truth.  We are all human.  We all make mistakes.  We all have both positive and negative people within all of our families, our different ethnic groups and religious dominations.  You can even throw in our so called "racial" groups, but I believe we all belong to once race, the human race.  That being said, I still imagine why we then waste our time jumping on a single inflammatory or divisive incident, when we all have "daily battles" to soldier and to help improve the soul within us and the world around us?  Everyday we have the opportunity to elevate ourselves and each other.  A smile and positive act does more to improve for the human brain and spirit than a frown and negative, reactive behavior.

So for the past few days, I have been on a mission to create a positive space here on the Internet.  A space that is the combination of all that I have learned from the positive experiences that I have gained and learned from blogging for the past nearly two full years.  I want to create a space to help educate my fellow adults as well as my children and their children.  Even if you don't have children, certainly this space is worth building and creating for the next couple of generations behind us.  This can be our legacy on this earth.  If you have been following me for the past two years, then I will need your assistance now more than ever.

We can all do this together.  We should do this not because it is safe, politically correct or popular.  We need to create this space - BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO!

Welcome everyone to my new blog...in my NY Eastside Entertainment world.  Welcome to ElevateOurWorld.blogspot.com!