Two Bus Rides

Really, it was one bus ride.  But it felt like two.

For my 30th birthday, we went to Chicago to see "Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me" and do various other fun things.  The whole thing was made possible by our friends who were willing to take our girls for a day, so we could go do things without regard to nap time, diapers or a constant need for more granola bars.  Part of the adventure was our transportation.  After driving to Kalamazoo, we took public transit for everything else, which means the first leg of our trip was on a city bus.

I haven't been on a bus in years.  Partly, this is because I haven't lived in a city with a significant bus system for many years.  But also, it's because I don't have to ride the bus, so I don't.  And people who do ride the bus do it because generally, they have to.  Sure, there are tons of people who commute to very normal office jobs on buses every day (my father-in-law among them), but buses are also sometimes the only method of transportation for the elderly and poor.  Sitting on that bus made me reflect on how I simply don't regularly experience a full sampling of the human experience.  I pretty much to go work and church, and occasionally target, and that's about it.  And as happens to all of us, it's easy to get very absorbed in your own life, and everything going on.  I've got work, and kids to read books to, and a house that's a mess, and a wife that's feeling a bit under the weather this evening, and all that keeps me pretty busy.  But I'm also pretty fortunate in the life I've got, and many of the opportunities I've had.  So, maybe, if you're looking for a bit of perspective in life, hop on a city bus and see what the world is like.  But if you do, get off when the 30 teenagers get on.

Because that started phase 2 of the bus ride: chaos, cussing and crime.  The chaos would pretty much come along with any very full bus, particularly when it's mostly full of teenagers.  The cussing, well, that probably goes along with them being teenagers, too.  As for the crime, as I already mentioned, we weren't 20 minute into our weekend adventure when I saw my first drug deal.  Two kids were about 3 feet away and were talking about something, and then one guy hands some cash to another guy, and then the second guy pulls out a bag with some white substance in it, and then my brain kinda says "maybe you should act like you aren't watching this."  So then I looked out the window.

So there you go.  Two different lessons from a single trip on the bus.
1. "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it."
2. Don't get involved in drug deals.