Get on the Bus

Written by: Joshua Logan
Edited by: Olga Z
Joboja Staff Writers

For those of us who love to sit in the food court of a mall and watch people and just gawk at the hilarity of a person who doesn’t think anyone is watching them, I have a new location for you to visit. This one is infinitely more interesting and I’ll tell you why. While all of the normal places one goes to and notices and takes interest in human kind, namely a park, a mall or sitting on a bench on the street, they all lack something. That something is pressure. Pressure is the key ingredient in driving the interest level in the drama of the observance sky high.

Now when I am sitting and watching people be people, I look for one thing, and that is drama, something that gives you the sense of what and who that person is. Drama is the factor that every movie, play, book or any other facet of entertainment possesses. Drama makes the story no matter what kind. There is a place where this drama, if one can tune in and become keenly aware of its presence, happens non stop and at a level of ten times those other droll locations. Where is this place, you ask? The crowded city bus.

The bus may not be the place you were expecting or even hoping for, but it is great for observing human nature in action. It is a place where people of all income brackets go (except maybe the opulent of the world) and become melded with all other, for just a ride. Also, every type of relationship rides the bus. There are both hetero and homosexual couples as well as mothers with sons, sons with fathers, old lady friends, little kids, clients, divorced people—everything. Everyone rides the bus and the crowded city bus is the best. Not only are people pressured from the lack of space creating an acute awareness of one’s position to another, but also their senses are heightened. They smell whatever is out in the open, see whatever people are doing and pick up feelings from others. People on a bus are also constantly judging each other and the game is flying in every direction from everyone.

To truly appreciate the bus and zone in on an interesting relationship, you must pick a few targets that hold loads of promise for a nice vision into some drama. You need a few because if you put all your eggs in one basket, you could be left with a dud. I suggest groups of people over two because they tend to communicate more and louder. If that can’t be found, go for people on the phone because not only is the person on the phone interesting, but also others will either be annoyed by someone on the phone or they’ll listen in on his conversation. Faces are how stories are told on busses. The human face contains about fifty-two muscles and that is plenty to tell the entire story of their own person play from act one to closing, considering the whole body has about six hundred muscles total. Watch carefully the changing expressions of the face. Even if someone is by himself, you can have fun guessing what’s going on in his mind by the shifting of his countenance. If none of those could be found, which is highly unlikely, try creating your own drama.

Sometimes making a weird face while looking down is enough to start the snowball down the hill. People will always be aware of whatever’s happening. Everyone on the bus usually has a simple goal and that’s not to become the center of someone’s attention and if you create some attention for yourself with something very small like that, it will often become the source of great pleasure.

The bus is an untapped resource to tell the stories of mankind. It possesses limitless tales and proofs of human relationship follies and victories. Life’s loves have been won and lost on the bus and though you may not believe it, great thoughts are always flying through minds in that damn public transportation domain. Soak it up people…your life might just depend upon it. But honestly, probably not at all.