The Daily Commute

  Commuting: A necessary evil for most: a fun excursion for those of us who live with our eyes open, able to inhale new impressions and moments to feed our souls like we all did the first day we were able to use our vision to take in the world around us.
  I'm wedged between a man with shoulders as broad as a barn door is wide, sleeping soundly, oblivious to the world around him, and a veterinary student, fervently flipping through the pages about birth defects in equines. Since half of the book is literally in my lap, it is hard to avoid learning one or two things: Admittedly, pretty amazing stuff...
  I gaze out the window as the train traverses the wetlands between Swampscott and Lynn. The sun is low on the horizon, softly illuminating the twenty or so clammers hunched over in their chest-high rubber waders, seeking bubbles of air in the sand, digging down and pulling up nature's siphons of salt water... Most animals travel halfway around the globe in search of food, water and an opportunity to reproduce. Clams have it all figured out you know: they set up camp on a chosen sandbank, and the tide brings them food approximately every twelve hours. Some types of clams can even reproduce on their own! Pretty genious, since finding a mate when you can't really travel would seem difficult.
  After stops at Riverworks, where General Electric made the first jet engine produced in America in 1942 (http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/MA3301/), and Chelsea, just across from the Mystic River, the train pulls into North Station. We pour out, like smoke billowing out of a chimney on a cold day, dispursing across the platform, disappearing into the city...

Origin of COMMUTE

Middle English, from Latin commutare to change, exchange, from com- + mutare to change 

First Known Use: 15th century (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commuting?show=0&t=1328934797)