I first began to conceive of this column three and a half hours before typing these words, as I stood with my wife and children in an impossibly long queue for the Eurostar, snaking across Gare du Nord in 35C heat. The problem was not the delay, but the discomfort, the anxiety and the uncertainty. It was impossible to read or even think because the queue moved and bunched; it was dammed and redirected at unpredictable points for unknown reasons. There was nearly a nasty accident as an escalator pumped people into a space that was already crowded.
在打下这些文字的三个半小时前，我第一次开始构思这个专栏，当时我和妻子、孩子们站在欧洲之星(Eurostar)的长龙中，在35℃的高温下蜿蜒穿过北站。问题不在于延误，而在于不适、焦虑和不确定性。我们无法阅读，甚至无法思考，因为排队的队伍在移动和拥挤；队伍在不可预测的地方被阻挡和改道，原因不明。当一个自动扶梯将人们推入一个已经很拥挤的空间时，几乎发生了一场可怕的事故。
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