11-12-14

I commute to and from work everyday by subway. There are certain Metro rules I follow, like when riding the escalator down into or up out of the stations, i always stand on the right side and let people who walk the escalators use the left side. 

And then there are general life etiquette rules that I also try to follow on the Metro. For instance, if I'm sitting on the Metro and an older person gets on, I stand and offer my seat. 

The quandary I find myself in time and again is deciding whether the person is really older than me or not. The problem is that in my mind, I'm still about 26 and so I must look like I'm 26 when in fact, I have 729 wrinkles and double that in gray hair, my midsection jiggles, and I wear Naturalizers on the train.  People are probably in the same quandary when they see me. 

I don't want to offend anyone and people seem so easily offended now so my rule of the thumb is that the person has to look really old and then, I give up my seat. Really old simply means they have at least 730 wrinkles and their hair is mostly gray or even white. 

In the meantime, I wait for someone to offer up their seat to me.