Two Grown Women Fighting Over Who Was First In Line

A few days ago, I saw a fight break out between two full grown professionally dressed women over their position in line.

Most people know the unofficial rules of boarding rush hour trains - when a train comes along, those who do not board step aside for those boarding to get by. After everyone who will board leaves the line, those who did not board re-form the line using the honor system. People simply get back in the line in the same order, minus those who boarded the last train.

Unfortunately, this honor system does not always work and chaos ensues....

Wednesday afternoon at the Embarcadero station during the 5 o'clock rush hour - Two professionally dressed 40-something women were in line waiting to board. After the commuters boarded the most recent train and the line began to reform, Woman #1 steps up to the front of the line. Woman #2, who had stepped aside so that those behind her could board the last train, then squeezed herself in front of Woman #1 so that she was now in the front of the line. Woman #1 says, "How did you get in front of me?" (I didn't think her tone sounded hostile, to me she just sounded confused) and Woman #2 whips her head around, glares at her, and snaps "I was just standing off to the side to let people board!" clearly already pissed off. Woman #1 then becomes angry at the tone of Woman #2's response. A yelling match then ensues between these fully grown, professionally dressed women. I walked away as things started to really escalate, shaking my head and marveling at how close these women were to physically attacking one another. Who knows, perhaps things did come to blows after I left.

This is a testament to how stressed out people get by the daily rat race. I say, life is just too short for this kind of attitude! To the extent we can, we should view the commute as a time for relaxation - as a welcome respite between working our butts off for our bosses/clients and working our butts off for our families. Everyone has bad days, but we will get so much more out of life if we try not to let such inconsequential things get under our skin.