Taking the Bus in Malibu

My car was in the "shop" down at Cross Creek. I needed to get it and had no ride...I walked from my house to the bus stop at Heathercliff and PCH, knowing that it would get me to Cross Creek somehow....I had taken it before (once) and had looked over on many occasion to see the folks who were waiting for the bus.  They are there most all the time..different ones.  Not people who have likely ever been in a Mercedes, let alone a Tesla.  For many, their "ship" didn't come in, or at least not in a way that allows them to have a lot of choices in life.

As I sat on the concrete bench for a half hour I struck up a conversation with a lady, maybe early 60's, who was, herself, looking for a way to get into midtown.  The conversation was inconsequential but we were both waiting for public transportation so we made the most of it.  We had something in common at that point in time.  As a bus went past us that we were expecting would stop, we looked at each other in slight shock....we were in a position, at that moment, to communicate via a glance only.  We had established that commonality that allowed us to feel connected by the journey we were on together, if only for a moment.

It is easy to lose contact with how the "other half" lives...it is easy to be and feel disconnected from those who don't have the same beach access key, or get invited to the same parties, or from those who struggle every day to pay for the basic necessities of life.  It is far too easy to see "them" as "them", and "us" as "us".

As I boarded, two more passengers jumped on...ones who were more familiar with the bus schedule and didn't waste their time showing up a half hour early.  We all sat at different places on the bus....I could see out the window at the other cars and drivers as we headed down PCH.  I made eye contact with some of them at the stop signals.  I was clearly on the "outside" of their world at that moment, on the margins.  I was very easy to disregard.  It happens to all of us....we can easily ignore the reality that we are all connected.

The farther we get from the entirety and diversity of the human experience, the more we are isolated in a world of separation and isolation, the lesser we are as individuals and as a civilization, in my opinion.  For, if we feel no real connection to those "on the bus", how then can we understand that world?  How then can we have perspective, and human connection, and perhaps most of all...compassion for others, all the others.

When the windows roll up on our SUV's, etc, and all the sounds on the outside are muffed.  When the tinting blocks out the world.  Just remember, perhaps, that there is a whole symphony going on out there....there are instruments being played that will never be heard..unless you listen closely.

I benefited today from a reminder of that reality.