Riding on the Bus

I ride the city bus, which takes me back and forth to work each day. Just by riding it, I can tell that people don’t notice each other anymore. How can you? We’re so caught up in the fast track of looking good, being cool, and enhancing our sexual pleasure, that we fail to notice the simple things in the world around us.

The only people you notice on the bus are the guys talking to themselves or the women with the babies who won’t shut up. Even then, you become so used to it that you faze it out completely. It’s hard sometimes, not to notice others. Like when a stranger breaks down crying, it’s harder to get up and walk to the other side of the bus. Or when you walk down the street and you see a homeless man with an infant, it’s even harder to tell him to get off his lazy ass and get a job.

I ride the bus, where people meet new people, learn about those people, and forget they ever met them as soon as they step off the bus. Sometimes you meet someone you can relate to, someone that shares your interests. I met a woman like that, so I married her. And I proposed on the bus. Ha!

Someday I hope to drive the bus, see the sights, the new faces, and meet the people who ignore me now. Because when you drive the bus, they all talk to you. If only once.

I see people pray on the way to work. Some pray for their family, others for money, some for good grades, but mostly just for miracles. People pray for miracles, yet they never seem to realize that every breath we take, every heart we give, every life we touch, is the miracle that the whole world is waiting for. I have come to learn that. It’s why I ride the bus.