Respect
I seem to have acquired some esteem among my fellow commuters following yesterdays shenanigans. When I got on the bus last night people asked me how I got on getting in, and what time I got to work. One person said what I did was very noble and they all saw my empty coach on the way to get me come past them the other direction on the motorway as they went to into London to work.
I tried to be modest and humble and pretend I had made a small sacrifice of their behalf and that the company would be hearing from me because as commuters, we aren’t going to take this lying down. Paying money for no seats…. pah! No “Sir/Madam”! Not us - and Cliff Jones was going to let them know about it, that’s who, because no one should have to go through what I endured yesterday.
Alright, I didn’t say all this, but I they felt grateful, which feels good.
What I didn’t say is: “No, it was cool! I got to ride a big orange bus by myself and we got to go really fast because it was after rush hour! And I spoke to the driver and now I know how much busses cost and that they have ceramic clutches and one driver went through six in two months because he’d only ever driven manual cars before and now they only let him drive automatic busses. And it reminded me that every day is an adventure even though on the face of it they can all look very similar and how you should remember that change is good and like I said to my friend Iain ‘You can’t walk into the same river twice’ but I really got it, you know?!”
… because then they wouldn’t feel I’d done something good by putting others first and that maybe I was slightly mad.
It wasn’t the point, but maybe next time they will step off the bus, figuratively speaking. And maybe, because of their gratitude, I’d do it again. Random acts of kindness, or sometimes just random acts, are a good thing. Enjoy your day.