commuting

I spent the last week commuting to and from london. Typically only a 40/50 minute journey each way but it certainly was enough to change me. I found that I became very competitive about getting a seat on the train, to the point of almost getting one in front of an elderly gentleman walking with the aid of a walking stick. Madness, I'm 27 and reasonable young and fit, I don't need a seat but the mentality of the crowd almost seemed to be survival of the fittest, first come first served.
It took me a day I think to lose my sense of chivalry and a few moments to snap back to my senses and not follow the crowd and try to do what I thought was right, even in this small way. I don't know when I lost my sense of perspective, probably when someone jumped ahead in a queue. A seat isn't very important though. What a difference to those journeys it would have been if only half those travelling were more polite and less worried about getting where they were going (in a seat).