He Who Laughs While Seated on a Throne in Heaven Laughs Loudest

God had a great laugh at my expense the other night. I was heading home and telling my friend, Olu, about a long-standing complaint I had with our subway system. I have always thought that the LCD marquees on the mezzanine/ticketing level of Metrorail stations should tell you when the next train will arrive at your station, rather than just giving you system-wide elevator outage and rail delay information.

The marquees on the train platform level give both types of information, so it's clearly possible. That way, I'll know if I need to rush to catch the train, if it's a lost cause, or if I have all the time in the world. And I wouldn't have to constantly bother the info booth guy or other passengers to see which train I just missed.

She sensibly recommended that I pass on this information to the people at Metro, who could actually do something about it. I scoffed saying, I had this suggestion for a long time and didn't anticipate it moving past the mental concept stage of its development anytime soon. Clearly, God had other plans.

As soon as we got on the train and sat down, she pointed out an advertisement directly in front of us. It was a picture of the interim president of the DC transit authority. The text invited Metrorail customers to contact him with any complaints, comments, or suggestions for how Metro could better serve them.

When I have a major life decision that I fast and pray for guidance on, I'm lucky to get a still, small voice. But when he overhears me whining about public transportation, I get a burning bush. Where's the justice?

Needless to say, I wrote Metro as soon as I got home that night. They wrote me back yesterday to say that they liked my idea and would be passing it on up the food chain.