SimplyStrange
October 24th, 2001, 07:58 PM
Ok, I ride the city bus every school day of my life to and from school, but I'm always riding with at least one friend, so it's just blah blah blah blah blah from me...
But today was different. Since I have rehearsals after school now for the play, I am going to be riding the bus home alone. Or at least that's how I saw it at first. But today I saw it through different eyes. I was no longer wrapped up in my own life, worrying about my own problems and such. I stopped to look around. When I got on, there was a woman speaking...but to no one in particular. Not realizing this, I just walked past her, finding a seat a few seats away and across the aisle. Once I began to overhear her speech, I looked at her, realizing she was just speaking, not to anyone, but speaking, reciting the Bible. She got off not too much longer, and when she was waiting for the bus to stop at her stop, and I looked into her eyes, but she did not look into mine. It was as if she was avoiding all eye contact with people, but when I looked away, she looked at me, then turned her back to me. I wondered if it was my pentangle she saw or what, but she did not look at me the entire time she was on after that, and continued to recite the Bible, then got off. I wondered for a moment, why exactly she was doing it, but shrugged it off. Then, without hesitation, this girl a few seats away from me says to the guy next to her, "good riddance". But yet, when I looked at the two, I didn't feel that whole "that's mean" feeling...I just saw a guy and a girl...and as I looked around, I didn't see anything about anyone that I didn't like or that I judged....I just saw people.
For the rest of the bus ride home, I felt totally and completely relaxed and at ease. Everyone I saw, I wanted to know about. I wanted so badly to hear their stories, to learn their names, to make them smile, to listen...I wanted to be a part of their lives, I wanted to go where they went, see what they saw, hear what they heard, smell, taste and feel what they did. I even saw a golden haired baby girl, riding in a modern day papoose, who looked over at me, staring at me with the gentlest eyes I'd ever seen. The most caring, unjudging and curious eyes I'd ever seen on any human of any age. I saw a mentally challenged man get on the bus and happily talk to those around him, and thought "he's not challenged. If anything, he's incredibly gifted." What he lacks in book smarts, he made up for in care. He was able to see the world through unjudging eyes... I even saw a girl I despised, and enemy, a former friend, get on the bus. And for the first time in over a year, I didn't have that longing to sock her in the face...I didn't have any of that anger inside of me. When I was about to get off, I watched her give me on of the most pitiful looks I'd ever seen, and I just glanced back, feeling nothing inside but respect for another human being...
Today I was among those who care most in the world. I was able to look at the world through the eyes of a baby, through the eyes of a mentally gifted man. Everything was beautiful to me...even the sound of the bus's engine, the expressions on the other passengers' faces. This truly is a wonderful, wonderful world, and today I stopped to look, and was happy with what I saw...
But today was different. Since I have rehearsals after school now for the play, I am going to be riding the bus home alone. Or at least that's how I saw it at first. But today I saw it through different eyes. I was no longer wrapped up in my own life, worrying about my own problems and such. I stopped to look around. When I got on, there was a woman speaking...but to no one in particular. Not realizing this, I just walked past her, finding a seat a few seats away and across the aisle. Once I began to overhear her speech, I looked at her, realizing she was just speaking, not to anyone, but speaking, reciting the Bible. She got off not too much longer, and when she was waiting for the bus to stop at her stop, and I looked into her eyes, but she did not look into mine. It was as if she was avoiding all eye contact with people, but when I looked away, she looked at me, then turned her back to me. I wondered if it was my pentangle she saw or what, but she did not look at me the entire time she was on after that, and continued to recite the Bible, then got off. I wondered for a moment, why exactly she was doing it, but shrugged it off. Then, without hesitation, this girl a few seats away from me says to the guy next to her, "good riddance". But yet, when I looked at the two, I didn't feel that whole "that's mean" feeling...I just saw a guy and a girl...and as I looked around, I didn't see anything about anyone that I didn't like or that I judged....I just saw people.
For the rest of the bus ride home, I felt totally and completely relaxed and at ease. Everyone I saw, I wanted to know about. I wanted so badly to hear their stories, to learn their names, to make them smile, to listen...I wanted to be a part of their lives, I wanted to go where they went, see what they saw, hear what they heard, smell, taste and feel what they did. I even saw a golden haired baby girl, riding in a modern day papoose, who looked over at me, staring at me with the gentlest eyes I'd ever seen. The most caring, unjudging and curious eyes I'd ever seen on any human of any age. I saw a mentally challenged man get on the bus and happily talk to those around him, and thought "he's not challenged. If anything, he's incredibly gifted." What he lacks in book smarts, he made up for in care. He was able to see the world through unjudging eyes... I even saw a girl I despised, and enemy, a former friend, get on the bus. And for the first time in over a year, I didn't have that longing to sock her in the face...I didn't have any of that anger inside of me. When I was about to get off, I watched her give me on of the most pitiful looks I'd ever seen, and I just glanced back, feeling nothing inside but respect for another human being...
Today I was among those who care most in the world. I was able to look at the world through the eyes of a baby, through the eyes of a mentally gifted man. Everything was beautiful to me...even the sound of the bus's engine, the expressions on the other passengers' faces. This truly is a wonderful, wonderful world, and today I stopped to look, and was happy with what I saw...