Bus rides and pet peeves’

For those of you who don’t know I take the bus pretty much everywhere I go. Meaning, I spend a lot of my time with sweaty, smelly, intoxicated, old, interesting and otherwise wired people, but I’m not going to talk about that. I am however going to talk about a certain incident on the bus ride to work today that really opened my eyes to the way I view the world and the kind of person I am.

If you have ever rode a King County Metro bus you know that the seats are slick, causing your body and your stuff to move around when the bus goes around sharp corners, or any corner for that matter. Today, I was sitting next to a elderly woman who had her bag on the seat next to her and was quite cough up in a conversation with a man, who appeared to be her husband, and two children, who appeared to be her grandchildren. We went around a fairly severe corner and her bag started to slide. Never to fear though, I was quick to act and used my foot to hold it in place until she was able to grab it and place it back on the seat. She seamed to not notice me and kept on having her conversation with the people she was with. This really pissed me off, I couldn’t help but think to myself “why didn’t she say thank you, see if I help her again.” I just kept on being bitter for the next couple of minutes until right before she got off she looked at me and smiled and said “thank you” as she pointed to her bag.

It’s funny in life how sometimes we do good for the reward and not for the better of humanity. How we like to be noticed, thanked and loved for our actions. On that same note, I personally find it quite annoying when I am thanked disingenuously for doing something where it would have been better to just keep your mouth shut than to thank me for something you aren’t actually thankful for.

Be real, be selfless.