Everything in Transit

For the most part, I check the Someone To Write To PO Box on my way home [from downtown]. Then, because I’m too excited and impatient, I start to read whatever letters I get on the subway for the five remaining stops home. The two letters I got yesterday were hilarious. The first was from a friend who’s currently teaching English in India, and I was shaking with uncontrolled laughter on the crowded subway when I read her comment on monkeys:

“Speaking of monkies, there are tons of them here, and they’re annoying as shit. Not even because they break into the kitchen and steal your food, but cause they’re aggresive little bastards and if you try to chase them away without something seriously long and heavy, they’ll chase you right back. However, the Tibetan word for monkey is “Piew”—as if you were smelling some nasty garbage—and whenever one comes around all the kids yell “piew, piew, piew!” which generally makes up for the annoyance of stollen food and the terror of being eaten by a raging, rabies-infested, screeching primate. I pretty much piss my pants every time I hear them.”

I’m used to people looking at me funny, especially when I’m laughing, so that didn’t really bother me. I like to think that people were more curious as to what I could be reading than annoyed by my suppressed laughter in a small, crowded metal tube.

The second letter I started to read but didn’t finish before I had to get off the train. It was also laugh-out-loud funny and I got more looks. It wasn’t until I got home and finished reading the letter that I realized that my friend had actually drawn and picture of a naked lady on the back of the last page—the page that was clearly visible to all on the subway as I read and laughed at the first page. Oops.

This project as my class assignment is due in exactly three weeks. However, this PO Box, and this project will continue. I’d love for more letters to reach me in time to be apart of the “class presentation” but I will continue to read all those that come after.

I’d also like to add another quote from my friend(in India)’s letter, which she signed off with:

“According to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, it is making other people smile that gives life purpose. And according to those Harvard neurologists, he knows what’s up.”


(PS: the title of this blog is the title of a Jack’s Mannequin album that I currently have on repeat and can’t seem to listen to enough.)