Face Recognition.

This morning I stared out the windshield of my 30-foot 50-cent limo and caught the chauffer waving at someone in his rearview mirror. I looked behind me and saw no one and then looked back, pointing at myself and he said something like, "You're a bit early aren't you?" It was then that I realized that I was a "regular" and that my patterns were emerging. I pulled the rip cord early so as to take advantage of the shadier side of the road and he tells me that there's another stop just up ahead and I let him know that I've got things under control and it was my intended stop. I didn't expect the bus drivers to be friendly. I pictured them as weathered and grisled automatons ignoring anything but the white line, shouting out commands to the disruptors of peace and telling people to sit down and shut up. This was a kind person, a person who says thank you and "take it easy" as you leave the bus.

I've started wondering where I'll run into the first person I recognize outside the daily bus ride. I wonder if we'll say hello or just nod in acknowledgement. Would we rush to the aid of one another if one of us were injured or in need of assistance? Can a bus build a community or is it its own community? The trouble-makers, the peace-makers and the warriors that together, weave the tapestry of the city. We are the platelets in the plasma coursing through asphalt veins, some oxygen rich, others white cells fighting the infections of society. All united in the pursuit of life in the circumstances that brought them together.