I’m pretty much on the record that “being optimistic” and I are at an arm’s length relationship.
This past Friday, I was feeling particularly satisfied at work, as I got five reference questions and two or three blog posts done. I was really enjoying the eclectic music I was playing, which included Al Green, Willie Nelson, Joss Stone, Ella Fitzgerald, Iggy Pop, and Glen Campbell, all of whom have April birthday, plus latter Johnny Cash. What a rush.
So naturally, the ride home was EXTREMELY annoying. This woman was on her cell phone, screaming at her off- and on-again boyfriend “Rodney.” Not only did I hear her, ten rows away, the whole damn bus heard her imaginatively vulgar, eight-minute rant that I wished I had recorded, it was so memorably obscene. Well, everyone heard it except, apparently, the bus driver, who drove on obliviously.
Isn’t it always the way? When I’m feeling good, something has to come along and ruin it? But just as I was looking at this as a bummer of an event, harshing my mellow, I discovered something else. There was this odd camaraderie among the passengers, at least the ones within my line of vision.
And we analyzed aloud, since she couldn’t hear us over the sound of her own voice, the nature of her relationship with Rodney. She kept saying – no exaggeration, at least a dozen times – that she didn’t care about him. But that were the case, why not just hang up on the jerk?
About four stops after she got off, some guy comes on the bus and announces, to no one in particular, that passengers on a bus represent a “microcosm of society.” Several of us laughed and said, “You have no idea!”
Earlier that day, I happened to run into a woman I’d met in a bookstore, a friend of a friend. I told her that I needed to write something for my blog by Tuesday, that usually I’ve written SOMETHING long before then. But she said she was optimistic that I would get it done.
Initially, I was going to write about things that make me feel optimistic, such as the healing, and persistent, power of kindness or how Great Britain is now a Fox News-free zone or how more women are running for office in the United States.
But I was optimistic that I could get to 300 words without describing those sentiments at great length. And I did.
For ABC Wednesday
Yes you did 🙂
The bus driver misses a lot of drama in his bus.
Happy ABCW!
That’s great, Roger!
Even I am optimistic that we can achieve what we sincerely believe. We need to work hard too! Mere wishing just won’t do!
I can understand how annoying some people can be who do not care for co-passengers and treat such public transport as their own living space where they can scream and rant to their heart’s content! Had you really recorded her conversation and played it to her, maybe she would have realized 😉
Have a great week!
Life is like that ups and downs along the highway of life ~ Hold to your optimism though ~
Namaste,
A ShutterBug Explores
aka (A Creative Harbor)
I love your writing style!
My ABC WEDNESDAY
You could certainly be optimistic about your family you have to come home to and not hers!
Ann
Sadly enough I’m not one of the optimistic people in this world, I do Always envy those who are
Have a splendid, ♥-warming ABC-Wednes-day / -week
♫ M e l ☺ d y ♪ (ABC-W-team)
http://melodymusic.nl/22-o
I like your post. Funny, light tones, and at least one life metaphor. There’s nothing like a bit of oppression (the cell phone talker) to get like-minded people to pull together and overthrow it, which I think includes talking enough about it to find the humor in it.
The View from the Top of the Ladder
Was glad I was not in that bus. Just reading about it, made me want to put my fingers in my ears and very loudly sing a song, not to hear her rant!!
Maybe I’m not understanding “why” you were optimistic not to have gone in great detail (it sounds like you’re not supposed to do that in a blogs post? or, or maybe that is not what you meant?)
I meant that I could have had that ruin my perfectly good day. Or I could have rejoiced that I could actually commune with strangers instead