bus riding thoughts

One of the chief pleasures of riding public transport, especially on the long Seattle-Tacoma run, is freedom from the worries of single car drivers. No one is going to subject bus riders to drive-by shootings, probably because we’re not very individually visible, sitting high as we do behind darkened windows. Some car driver who wants the thrill of road rage will take it out on someone of equal or lesser size. What car, even a Hummer or Escalade, would challenge a bus to a game of chicken? At least those were some of the things I was speculating about the other morning, in between moments of reading, and also gazing at Mt. Rainier. Though I still start my morning commute in the dark of night, by the time the bus is half-way to Tacoma, rosy-fingered dawn has brought the mountain to visible life. Did Homer use epithets for mountains, as for the dawn and the sea? Hmm. Any epithet for Mt. Rainier would have to have some heft, like his “earth-shaker Poseidon” or “big-hearted,” “much enduring” Odysseus. In a bus one can speculate about such matters, and gaze wonderingly at the mountain, and not have to worry about inadvertently running one’s car off the road, or instigating road rage.

Wallace, Faculty