Bustling trains in China

     The train is crowded. On the wall it says that the max capacity is a hundred and eighteen. But that is in the seats. the isles are almost unnavigateable. In between cars is where the men crowd around to smoke. Grace, my brother's wife, was concerned. The train was going through some poorer towns in the mountains, and there were some guys of questionable character on the train. They were young guys she was worried about. One had a tattoo. Maybe that alone made Grace nervous. They wore bright clothes, one guy in a Hawaiian shirt, another in electric blue pants and no shoes. And they were interested in me. Of course we did not speak the same language. They smiled, shook hands, and practiced their English. "I love you." He held my hand like he did not want to let go. It was awkward, his accent was heavy and obviously it was hard to interpret his intent. Did he have any idea what he was saying. One of the guys sought out Grace to attempt further communication. Once she walked into the scene she was a little aghast, and shut down our relations of unknown romantic qualities. I was not to talk to these bad boys. They may tell me they loved me, but for them getting in my pants was just a way to fleece me. Maybe.
    I don't think I missed my opportunity to meet my Romeo. But I do think it is interesting how we need to shut people out, close our doors in order to feel safe. We are protecting ourselves from from life, from reality, from the challenge of being challenged. And it is easier, easier to be afraid.
     If I ever go back to China I will learn the language. China is a very crowded country, and if you think about it simply from number crunching, if ninety nine percent of the people have no interest in taking advantage of you than probability wise someone on the car should of been out for the graft. But why does it have to be about us. I found that many people who were in the business of taking money felt that they had a responsibility to try to squeeze a little extra out of the foreigner. But the average person person was honestly interested or not. As opposed to a place like Belize city which is riddled with gangster culture, where someone may feign interest to get close to you. Not that I don't call some of my boys in Belize city friend.
      I watched a number of films glorifying gangster life on the plane back. But I never saw it when I was there. In China the family unit is paramount. Confucius was only a philosopher, but his sayings and the life style that stems from those sayings has developed into a religion and is fundamental to Chinese thought. Strong family ties and a culture that forces the individual to assist anyone connected to them always has a danger of being very nepotistic, quickly leads to graft and corruption. China will always struggle with this. So while in some very obvious ways the entire country is one big communist mafia, the every day people, possibly because they were always dealing with gangsters, seemed to be genuine and honest.
     I am going to cut it off there. I should clean this up. clarify my ideas, but I don't have to really deal with being people actually reading this. So here we go