There are two ladies on the bus who always cause a bit of a stand-off between themselves and other commuters.
One is about 45 years old. She has a crew cut and is always wearing a t-shirt and cargo pants- even in the dead of winter. She’s also always clutching a huge packet of baby wipes and spends her trip scanning the bus from front to back, over and over again. She sits in the wheel chair section where the flip-down seats are and if someone sits down next to her, she’ll shout: “Excuse me, but can’t you see I have a sore back???” Unless you had x-ray vision, you really couldn’t.
Poor, blameless commuter springs up faster than you can say “Is it something I did??” and sprints to the back of the bus. She settles back into her seat, and resumes scanning the bus from front to back. Everyone squirms uncomfortably.
The other is about 50 years old and is always hunkered down in her duffel coat. She wears transition glasses and speaks in a raspy voice: “Excuse me, but could I please sit down?” Even if the bus is empty, she’ll insist on getting the person who’s on the outer seat of the second row of seats, to move for her. You can feel that person bristle because in some way, her tone implies that they’ve done something wrong. She feels their hesitation and then speaks up: “Well you know, I am unwell, you’d think I’m asking you to do something unreasonable- the way you’re carrying on”. Even though they’re not.
It brings the energy of the bus down every time they’re on there. Of course, when they spot each other, they join to form the Mutual Discontent Society and you hear the negativity billowing out as the bus creeps down George Street.
There’s a theory that in life, you attract who you are. Like attracts like. Birds of a feather flock together– all of that. Watching those two ladies made me realise that if we were to fall into a spiral of believing that “everyone’s out to make life hard for me”, we’d probably be just as Debbie Downers, and form our own Mutual Unappreciated Society.
Let’s be selective about the societies we choose to mix in– you’re the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so keep to the circles that will support you, enrich your life, be kind to you and challenge you to be your lovely best 🙂
