Running on about three hours’ sleep, I showed up at the train station early Saturday morning in a bemused stupor. The only concrete fact I could establish was that my train was on time; confident of that, I stood under the departure sign with my eyes rolled up into my skull until an older man approached and asked me where to find the New Jersey Transit counter.

We were standing a mere ten feet a way from the New Jersey Transit counter, but since I somehow interpreted his question as a search for the Long Island Railroad counter, I sent him on a wild goose chase to the other side of Penn Station. When I realized this, I was so horrified that I went and hid behind a crowd of people on the other side of the waiting area. Which is why I was not at the front of the line to get on the unreserved train, which is why I did not get a seat and had to stand between cars.

I blame all of this on New Jersey, but at least I now know that, like a flamingo, I can balance on my feet while sleeping.

The return trip the next day was more comfortable. I took the seat next to a wide-eyed young man who sat primly with his perfectly manicured hands folded in his lap. I took note of this because my own fingertips look as if they have been devoured by weasels (in fact, they have been). He did not move or even blink the entire time, but that was fine because I was thinking about something else.

On that fateful train ride, I came to the conclusion that there is hope for humanity after all. It was touch and go for a while, and certainly there is no end of problems that we cause for ourselves and each other, but all of that is habitual, and we can change habits. This is illustrated twice a year, when Daylight Savings Time begins and ends: on those occasions, our entire society* does something different. Can you imagine? Maybe a day will come when we all decide to stop voting for Republicans. I might even stop letting the weasels chew on my fingertips.

It could happen.

* I know there are a few holdout backwaters that do not acknowledge Daylight Savings Time. Perhaps if we ignore them, they'll go away.