In April 2010 God in His infinite grace and wisdom granted onto my wife and I a third daughter. At that time on this blog I paid tribute to taxi drivers. Now in November 2011 … No, no more daughters, but time to give thanks for another servant of transport.
I believe I got into buses late on in life. For most of my first 17 years of existence I either got by through my Dad driving or through walking. When the fullness of time came I didn’t bother learning to drive and for much of my university and Stoke-on-Trent life I became familiar with buses.
Public transport gets some grief from users. It is a big motivation for others to learn to drive because of their lateness or the shabby service and the routes that appear to be inspired by the Beatles’ tune The Long and Winding Road. I can sympathise with these frequent complaints. Not all in my bus life has been rosy at all and sometimes I do despair.
Yet more often than not I have found being on the bus highly convenient. Plenty of books have been read on my regular bus journeys. Books that may never have been read otherwise. Ideas have been inspired on bus journeys as I observe the folks who for good or bad use it for their mode of transport. This very blog entry has been typed whilst on a bus journey.
I chuckle at some of the bus etiquette. Some very noble like giving up your seat for one who needs it more. Some very silly like a few young people who see the bus as an extension of their bedroom and lounge on the seats. Then there’s the double-decker culturre of staying safe downstairs or taking the upstairs and really being a rebel!
I do feel for bus drivers and the grief they deal with as customers from all different backgrounds and temperaments endeavour to stretch their milk of human kindness to the limit. I don’t believe for a minute it’s an easy job. I can well imagine it is more a thankless task. Yet there they go from day to day, braving the elements, negotiating the awkward customers, tolerating the smelly, gently reproving the rowdy, keeping their head down and making the next stop so that someone can get off at the right place.
I salute the bus driver. She may get paid. He may get benefits. They are yet still providing a service. They are still taking me from near my home to near my work. Thank God for their dutiful and diligent service. Thank God for the bus driver.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 