Today On The Bus

I intervened today.  I wasn't really supposed to be on that bus.  It was an alternate and slightly longer route to my destination, given that I was getting rather cold standing in the January shade at the bus stop.  I was also supposed to be at a meeting at work, which for some reason I forgot about completely.  It was a bit later in the Marpole coffee shop, waiting for my friend who never showed, when I got a call from my supervisor.

I boarded the bus and walked past a large middle aged South Asian man on my way to the back.  I almost tripped over him as he was hogging two seats and sitting on the aisle side, too engrossed in his very loud conversation on his phone.  I observed him closely, finding him simultaneously loathsome and pathetic.  He was wearing a baseball cap over his white turban causing a particularly dorky effect.  He also frequently wiped and picked his nose with his free finger, pausing to examine his findings before flicking them into the aisle.  I soon picked up that I was being towards this stranger particularly hostile and judgemental and made an effort to get on top of my attitude.  I found him still unsettling and disturbing then concluded that there must be some mental health baggage there. 

He changed seats and sat next to an older, I think Filipina, woman whom I assumed knew him, though it was difficult to imagine them together.  Eventually I heard a woman's voice cry out in anger fear and protest demanding this man to leave her alone.  She seemed clearly distraught and frightened by him.  I got up, went toward them, asked, "What's going on here?"  The woman said he wouldn't stop pestering her and the driver seemed deaf to or unaware of her call for help.  In a gentle, polite, but firm voice I looked the man in the eye and told him "Sir, you are going to have to stop bothering this lady and move to another seat."  With barely a squeak of protest the South Asian man moved.  And to think that for a while I found him quite scary and intimidating, at least from my seat.

Perhaps God planned it this way, which is why I forgot about my meeting at work.  I'll never know.  I did my part.  I feel neither brave or heroic, simply that I did the right thing.  At the end of the day shouldn't we all be doing these things?  Nothing special or heroic.  Just being a good neighbour.  We are all in this together.