Right Into This Man's Lap. Crash!

So today on the bus....

HAPPY DECADE'S EVE!

visual: lululemon black Groove Pants with a green plaid waistband matching my green plaid headband, bright orangish-red tank and black Shape jacket groove to the bus in my ever so comfortable UGG boots and green stunner shades.

I am feeling a bit rushed today as I scoot out of my apartment and head to a new bus stop. It is actually much closer than my Rapid 720 Bus stop. I would estimate roughly 32 steps from my front door to this local bus stop. Now, you know my dedication to the Rapid bus versus the local bus line, but I am open minded as I wait for the Big Blue Bus #14.

Reason for new bus stop is my NIA dance class I am attending this morning is on a different side of town. I have requested the Irish River Dance theme, hence my green plaid attire! Very exciting. New dance moves to end my 2009 and a new bus route. Watch out 2010!

My bus arrives right on time and I jump on and greet my very friendly bus driver and wish him a Happy New Year's Eve. Not a soul on the bus, just me. Strange. Very clean bus, yet almost sterile. Our Metro line has to get some life in it. Pimp my Bus Ride, MTV!

We twist through neighborhoods at a rather rapid pace. A longer route than usual due to the local line and all its stops, but still good timing. We pick up a handful of passengers here and there. An older woman sits across from me with these huge reading glasses and a larger purse, a group of kids jump on and move towards the back and a couple other strangers scatter to fill my new bus.

Now, the woman across from me is silent for a bit then dives into a conversation, with herself. There is a young gentleman sitting near her and we glance and smile at one another understanding the present moment. She is speaking about X-Rays and pains and health conditions. I notice she is talking to someone, not necessarily just talking to herself. So interesting. I always wonder about people who speak with themselves on the bus. Are they talking to themselves? Are they speaking with someone that they believe is sitting and/or standing next to them? Are they talking so I might respond? I guess they never get lonely as they always have someone to talk to at all times.

Regardless, she rambles on. As we approach her stop she stands up ever so gracefully and asks the bus driver to be as close to the intersection near her bus stop as possible, as she is just so tired. He complies. She nods and goes back to her seat.

How nice of the bus driver to allow her a little less walking time. So friendly.

We approach her stop and she stands to exit and reaches for the hanging loop for balance. However, she somehow loses that graceful balance she had just exemplified and swings around and falls on the younger gentleman that was sitting near her. She literally falls straight into his lap and flails around for a moment. He helps her up. She apologizes, saying she did not mean to do that and gathers herself to depart.

I am in shock. I wish I had a video to connect to this - as I would reenact the entire display for you. visual: Feeble older woman. Huge reading glasses. Large purse. Slowly stands up and reaches for the loop. Imagine a large rope that kids swing on in the movies then drop in a lake. Or a monkey hanging from a tree and swinging from one long arm. That is what she looked like: She held on tight and just swung around and RIGHT into this man's lap. Crash! Old woman arms and legs flailing around and the man's eyes wide and trying to help her up.

I think my mouth dropped open. It was like a car accident and I could not avert my attention for the life of me.

As she departed, I look to the man who had just helped her off of his lap and we both start smiling and quietly laughing as the image replays and we contemplate, "did that just happen?".

I really have to wonder if it was an accident. The bus did not stop all that hard. And, as an avid bus rider, you learn the ways of a moving bus. Especially when you are holding on to the loops for balance!

Thus, I ponder. I think about my life and human touch. I probably receive an average of six to ten hugs a day. That is a lot of love in my book. When I am with my family or friends, the number sky rockets. I love the energy transfer and the affection that comes with the human touch. Be it a warm embrace, a shoulder laying on another, holding someones hand or even a high five - it comes from a place of acknowledgement and love. And that is really what we all want at the end of the day, love.

In the one of my favorite films of 2004, Crash there is an incredible quote pertaining to this exact occurrence with the older woman on the bus:

"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

I agree with this completely. People avoid all human contact. I really believe that woman fell on to that young gentleman on purpose. She needed love. The energy transfer. Human touch.

One of my first bus experiences in Santa Monica was with a homeless woman in sequence pants asking me for a hug at my bus stop. She just needed love. If only for that moment. And I sure hugged her.

What would life be with out that interaction? Reach out and love someone today. Literally share the human touch and truly feel it.