line 4 to clignancourt

I was on the metro the other day going to class and I was surrounded by people like me on their way to work or school. Everyone in the train had headphones in and were filling in a crossword puzzle or checking emails on their iPhones. They were each little islands in their heads, waiting for the next stop and thinking ahead to their presentation that day and what they were to eat for dinner that night. But in the middle of this complete void of humanity, I saw a woman on the other end of the train sitting completely still and crying. I was so startled to see such raw emotion in a public place that I started to become honestly nervous and embarrassed for this woman. I couldn't stop staring at her expensive coat and neatly pulled back hair and the huge tears rolling down her cheek. I looked around to see if anyone else was nearly as panicked as I was to see this stranger so obviously emotionally stricken, but the man next to me continued to stare blankly in front of us, and the girl sitting next to the woman was too absorbed in her book to notice. And then, the train stopped at my station and I realized that I only had 10 minutes until class started, and I left. I was swept back up into the rush and bustle of a city of 9 million. 9 million people, and I'm positive that like me, not one of the other 899,999,999 people did a thing to help the lady crying on the metro. I can't help but think back and wonder how we've gotten here. How can we stand inches from strangers everyday on our commute or in a restaurant or at work and not be moved by their pain? There are a lot of things to fear in this world. We worry about terrorist attacks, and we worry about recessions and politics and racism, but what scares me the most is how out of touch we've become with compassion.