tfdl

When the student is ready, the teacher will come, as the adage goes. The other day my teacher came disguised as a bus.

I was walking to the bus stop a few mornings ago on my way to pick up a car at the Philly CarShare pod not too far from my flat. When I was about a half a block away from the corner, I saw the bus about a block away. Great timing, I thought. I began to jog toward the bus stop, and as I heard the bus approaching I waved. There was a green light at the intersection and the bus kept right on going leaving me standing there a bit out of breath and really pissed off. I was absolutely furious at the bus for not stopping. Then it occurred to me how strange and how totally irrational it is to be angry at a bus.

Once I was able to get in touch with just how absurd my thinking was in that moment, my whole little story about what had just occurred began to unravel at breathtaking speed. I quickly realized that during that whole dramatic scene I had just painted there was no other person sharing the stage with me. What I had done was to waive to the bus. I had not taken a moment to turn, make eye contact with the bus driver, and make it clear to him or her that I wanted to actually take the bus. No doubt the driver interpreted my actions to mean the exact opposite of my intentions.

So, instead of riding on the bus for a few blocks, I was treated to a very pleasant twenty-minute walk to the car pod. I picked up my car in plenty of time to stop by my friends’, Richard and Marcia, house and have a cup of coffee with them. Richard showed me a short cut to where I was going in Northeast Philadelphia, so I ended up getting there a bit early.

The rest of the day went well. The training I did on Emotional Intelligence seemed well received by the employees at the Just Born PeanutChews plant in Northeast Philadelphia. (I even used this little bus story in the training to show how irrational we can become when our emotions highjack our thinking.)

Later that day, after I dropped off the car, I went back to Infusion, my favorite café in Mt Airy, to use their Wi-Fi. Heading home I waited for bus on the corner. Evidently, a bus was taken out of service because there were a number of people waiting at the bus stop.

Across the street there were three teenage boys hanging out and acting like three teenage boys with a basketball. I commented to an older gentleman nearby about their “youthful enthusiasm”. He laughed and then commented about how wild these kids are these days. A wonderful conversation ensued about the state of our culture today, and how so few people really get global warming these days. He then remarked about what it is going to take to get us freedom loving Americans to get out of our cars. He envisioned a day when driving will be rationed. This gentleman was obviously far from wealthy. In his late seventies, I would guess. He had no front teeth, and was wearing a winter coat that, while still seemed warm enough, had seen a number of winters. So much for stereotypes.

And there we were having this great conversation about the state of the world – the likes of which I rarely seem to have much these days. When the student is ready…