Off The Rails

The Wrong Side Of The Tracks

What is it about railways that has the our parents generation, and ours to some extent, totally fixated? If a girl is with someone 'inappropriate', he's 'from the wrong side of the tracks'. If she does things that are considered a little wild or different, then she's 'going off the rails'. Apparently, that all relates back to trains in some way.

Maybe it's because trains go so quickly, and one you start heading into trouble you're often going to fast to stop. Maybe it's because when you're life is going so wrong it can feel like a ten tons of metal train is slamming into you. Maybe it's because a 'bad' guy can pull the moves on you so fast that before you know it you'll have missed your train stop. Who knows. Whatever it is, the analogy seems to be fitting, in some ways. But not really in others.

What i am wondering is who can classify what 'off the rails' really is. Where is it exactly that the train strays to far from the track? First someone has to classify 'on track'. Then pinpoint the exact moment where the tracks lose their appeal and the train starts looking for greener pastures. Finally, the question is, are those greener pastures all that they're cracked up to be?

I'm guessing that most people classify 'the track' as being the mainstream. The best way to get from point A to point B without any major disasters. The straight and narrow. This track is the part of life that everyone starts on. The trains that play here are the ones who are tame. They still have fun, in their own way, but it's safe and sterile. They go out, but they stick to putting only water or fizzy in their tanks. They dress up, but their paint just isn't too flashy. These are the trains who are happy to spend their friday nights in the train-sleeping-shed-place. These trains are everyone's favourites; they're never late, they're always neat and tidy, they get the best reports, they have the comfiest seats. The best thing is that they're perfectly content to be that way.

For some trains, there's the point where the track starts to get a little bumpy. The wood gets a little rotten, the scenery gets a bit too repetitive. So these trains start exploring the strip along the side of the tracks, picking over the pebbles and long grass that grow there. These little choo-choo's really aren't doing anything wrong. They're just pushing their boundaries just that little bit further. They stay out just that little bit later, party just that little bit harder, spend just a little bit longer seeing what their limits are.

Then there are the trains for whom even the sides of the track won't cut it. They want to explore more of the scenery that they drive past everyday. When they step off the rails and start to explore, try new things, venture into the unknown, they make their lives a little more interesting, let off some steam. But the moment they stray to far from the tracks, the other trains start giving them strange looks. The good little trains start looking down on the trains who are straying from the beaten track. Why? Just because they're doing something different?

Ok, so there's a point where the trains have gone so far off the rails that the track is just a blur in the distance, and that can be a bit problematic. But there's a big strech of space before they've gone too far. I don't know why the trains just can't have their fun in that space for awhile, before coming moseying back to the tracks. There's nothing wrong with trying something a little different, without being dangerous. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't think that, in this sense, going off the rails is a bad thing. People who explore a little aren't doing anything wrong, or that people should consider them devilish.

I think that maybe today people are worried a little too much about the trains playing too far from the tracks... the little choo-choo's are just having a good time. Until they start getting covered in rust and getting fines from the station master, things shouldn't be considered to be that bad. People shouldn't really worry. The trains are just keeping things interesting. Is it really a terrible thing?

Annie