On the Metro:
Got me Thinking
by
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May 19, 2010 at 1:13 pm On the Metro. A bird pooped on my window. Got me thinking. "The ultimate expression of freedom is often portrayed as the ability to fly. To soar above all else, transcending concepts of traffic and crowds. But, looking at the window I have re-evaluated freedom. The ability to crap anywhere, any time, any place is true freedom. We, now, can fly. But to be able to poop anywhere, we're not able to do that. Thankfully...”
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About the Book
Every day we see the mundane, the same old same old. But, if you look closely enough there is a lot going on. A lot of good things. If we stop for a moment, and think, we will see that the world is not so gray and hopeless. It is not routine. It isn’t even boring. If we stop and think of the wonders around us, there is something there. Something that “Got me thinking”.
I began writing the 420 character (or less) thoughts on Facebook statuses so that I could pass some time as I moved from point A to point B, and perhaps back again. But somewhere along the line, people began to respond to the thoughts. Folks grew passionate about getting up, having coffee, and reading the “metro musings”. It became something to pass on through Facebook, or email.
The purpose was to simply write down some positive thoughts while in the most negative, barren part of my day. It was a way to find beauty in a gray world, seemingly filled with hatred, death, famine and any other horrid things that come to your mind. This book, for the lack of a better term, is just thoughts that you or I could have while riding on a train.
It is just something, anything, nothing, which, for the lack of a better term, got me thinking.
About the Author
Originally from Jamaica, John ‘Major’ Anthony Nelson moved to Florida in 1979. Even at an early age, he was encouraged by his mother, an elementary school teacher, to try to learn as much about everything as he could. He never stopped trying to look at the world each day as if new. This led to hobbies of traveling, reading, and eventually writing.
While his love of writing never was put to use in books, until now, many of his jobs included looking at the surroundings with new and different eyes. He became known for writing policy, creating training guides for the projects he managed, and developing better communications strategies. This led to a career in Federal government, where he helps to develop and manage new policy, and improve business processes.
To get to his job, ‘Major’ rode a metro train 5 days a week from Alexandria, Virginia to Washington, DC. During the 45 minute trip, he posted musings on his Facebook status about the things he saw, thoughts about daily events and opinions about the day’s newspaper headlines. Finding inspiration, amusement and thought provoking dialogs, his friends on Facebook began to pass on and have conversations about the daily messages of “finding the good” or seeing the fun characteristics of events, processes and the world we live in. Folks from beyond the circle of Facebook friends would join in the conversations, become friends with ‘Major’, and soon it became more than just a fun way to pass the time.
His perspectives on politics have sparked conversations among people in Washington. Home-schooled students began seeking out the post in order to have discussions about ethics and morality. But more than often, readers found ‘Major’ Nelson’s sense of humor, positive outlook, and pleas to find the good in everything quite engaging, allowing for banter to spark not only on-line, but at the water cooler.
After about a year, ‘Major’ was encouraged by those friends to put the postings into a book so that more than just the Facebook friends could read and rouse thoughts of their own. Now, after over a year of postings, ‘Major’ continues to write while on the metro, and enlists more and more friends to have fun, observe the world around us. But mostly he asks that you think about something (anything) each day.