Friday 7 November 2008

Smile

The squat, harrassed bus-driver smiles ruefully, which changes everything. London bus-drivers, frazzled, underpaid and usually from the least privileged ethnic groups, rarely smile. They get that fragile sense of control that feels so essential to sanity from sailing past crowded bus-stops, swearing at passengers and braking hard so we fall over. Meditators know there is no control - accept it, it won't kill you. Remind self to meditate, and smile.

8 comments:

Dale said...

Oh. Love this, Jean.

Lucy said...

So what was he smiling at, making you fall over?

Jean said...

Nooooo. The ones who try to make all the standing passengers fall over like dominos NEVER smile, even when they succeed. Just at his own hapless exhaustion, and turning the bus around to start the trip back Northwards again, I think.

Rosie said...

It must be a stressed filled job...perhaps he was imagining that he was prseident...

Zhoen said...

Plucked the string of my life today.

Anonymous said...

There are lots of things I would loathe to give up control over - the control over my future provided by my money, my family, my reputation, my health, just to name a few. But yes, clinging to self-images seems futile, especially those propped up by exercising wanton control over others. The control provided by money is at least more respectable these days. Control and power and ginger and lemon teabags.

Dave King said...

Maybe he wasn't smiling, maybe he had indigestion!

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Oh yes! All praise to smiling bus drivers, of which there are not many. A memorable one **actually waited** for me when he saw me running from a traffic light to the bus stop. I said to him: you are the best bus driver in the world. And he smiled.