Three days ago a US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a letter about an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the United States. He offers a framework of actions that will address the disastrous state of affairs in the western world. The framework is rooted in six pillars.
“The first, strengthening social infrastructure in communities, involves boosting programs like volunteer organizations or religious groups, policies like public transit or education, and physical elements like libraries and green spaces…”
I could never imagined that I would see something like this coming from a public official in my lifetime. But above all, it stroke me that public transportation is mentioned in this manifesto.
After immigrating to the US at the turn of the century I gradually developed an appreciation for the invisible and uncelebrated role that public transportation played in the emotional well being of so many people in Europe and in Russia, where I grew up. I only realized its value after I lost it, switching to a car that came as an inseparable attribute of my new life in California.
I must have fully grasped the important role that public transport plays in the social fabric, and the palpable danger of social isolation back in 2004 after watching the film Crash, which proved to be prophetic and totally deserved its Oscar.
This realization connected me to the Russian song I used to listen as a child, then as a teen and then I later returned to it, as an adult. When last year my own teen daughter entered a dark phase, I put this song on a Youtube for her and she stared at the video intently. She asked me when this song was written. I said it was from the Soviet era of the 1960s. I felt it gave my struggling teenager a little peace of mind.
But in my appreciation of public transport as an important pillar of societal balance I always felt very lonely. And though I cannot remember when was the last time a public official stirred any genuine feelings in me, this letter by the Us Surgeon General moved me. I made time to put English subtitles on the Russian song that celebrated the healing power of a city trolly and helped me and then my US-born daughter through the darkest moments.
Narrated in a quiet voice with simple guitar strokes it tells a story of a desolate soul who hops a random trolleybus at night and circles around Moscow, finding solace just in being among other passengers in silence. Silence is kindness. Imagine that.
May be it will help someone else.
