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Singing Metro Man

This morning on the Orange Line train to work, Singing Metro Man made an appearance. If you ride the Orange or the Blue Line, you may know of him...I’ve heard from other passengers that he’s been around for years, though I can only confirm the last three. He’s an elderly Asian gentleman, well-dressed, who steps onto the train right before the doors close. Once the train begins to move, he clears his throat, says a polite but insistent “Excuse me,” and begins to sing a hymn from his songbook.

The effect is eerie. The silent morning train, everyone still half-asleep before their first cup of coffee. The whoosh of the tunnel. The man’s gentle, earnest voice singing a capella (he’s not half bad) about how we should trust in Jesus. As he reached his crescendo this morning, I half expected the train to explode or something—the moment just felt very... cinematic. Luckily, life is not a movie, and after the song was done, he wished us all a good day, exited the train and moved to the next car down, presumably to start all over again.

Despite the bizarre mood this has left me in, I was glad to see Singing Metro Man... I actually was wondering about him just the other day. I had seen him during the past 2 holiday seasons, but hadn’t seen him at all this year. I’m glad to know that he’s okay.

Comments

n said…
You describe it well. I get more Metro Hymn Guy experiences than most, I think. Our "work" schedules must be similar. I stood beside him on the platform the other day and did a double take. It was weird seeing him out of context.

/got here by technorati: metro,hymn,asian
11:06 PM
NMD said…
That's so funny-- I've seen the "aw HELL no" reaction, myself... in those exact words. Maybe we are on trains of the same people... DC is such a small world.
9:50 AM
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