Categories: uncategorized
Date: 05 May 2004 02:58:44
I was catching a bus home from Geelong yesterday late afternoon, and there was a girl crying at the bus stop. She had her face in the palm of her hands and was sobbing quite loudly. Another girl, probably a friend, was sitting next to her giving sympathy but not consolation.
I was feeling a bit emotional myself, and the incident affected me quite deeply. I wanted to go and ask her if she was alright, see if I could offer help in some way - but they probably would have thought I was a wierdo. And anyway, it was probably just some boyfriend problem or silly schoolyard thing.
Then I looked around, and noticed the multitude of people doing their own thing, all sharing private moments with the public around them. There were shopkeepers who had just finished up work talking about their business, a few other schoolkids yelling and punching each other, a skinny guy with wild eyes who kept grunting and barking at people as they walked past, a couple who had been shopping, a guy sitting on a bag of clothes bought at a cheap store who had to get up every time a bus came to see if it was the right one, one old guy offering a cigarette to another. Lots of people everywhere caught in their own thoughts, just walking by on their way to somewhere else.
I haven't been in town for a while, and I haven't stood and waited for a bus for even longer, and it gave me a sense of awe at how people live together in cities, in communities, all holding each other up and interconnected on a deeply social level, and how there are so many lives going on that I will never know anything about, uncountable millions of people who all lead their own lives and are wrapped up in their own woes and joys - and who often never notice that they are walking right past a girl crying at a bus stop.