Yesterday’s excitement was going to PT and then shopping at Aldi. I’m a wild one. I had an unfortunate transit encounter. Getting to and from Aldi is easy. It’s one bus and I have a choice of buses. The Bx1 is best as it stops closest to my house, that’s important when I come home loaded down with groceries. I was lucky, I got to the bus stop the same time as the Bx1. I hopped on the bus Gus and headed home I don’t need to pay much attention till near the end. As soon as the bus leaves Mosholu Parkway I pull the cord to signal I’m getting off the next stop, Van Cortlandt Street. I picked up my bags and went towards the exit. The bus went right pass the stop. I went up to the driver and said, “Didn’t you just miss Van Cortlandt street? I pulled the cord. The stop requested sign was still on. He said, “This is the Bx1, the next stop is Bedford Park Blvd.” I wondered if I was wrong and there was no Van Cortlandt stop. Could I be confused? I checked on the MTA app, the bus was supposed to stop there. I didn’t argue with the driver. What good will that do? Instead I took a picture of the bus serial number. When I got home I called 311 and said I had a complaint against a bus driver. In about 10 minutes I got to talk to a human being who treated me with empathy and respect. See I don’t always complain.
I’ve been sitting here for an hour decided what to write. My mind is filled politics and morality. I have a strong desire to get on a soapbox and preach. I am channeling old testament prophets, seeing what’s wrong in everyone around them. What’s stopping me is that the core of my moral philosophy is the Golden Rule; “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.” I’m not without sin and I loathe to throw the first stone. It’s not just the devil than can quote scripture, atheists can too. So I’m not going to preach fire and brimstone. Instead I’m going to make one suggestion. When judging others, be generous, as you would like others to be generous to you. It’s easy to come up with malevolent explanations for why people act like they do. It’s not difficult to cherry pick examples to prove your point.
When we do something wrong we look for extenuating circumstances to justify ourselves. The ethics of reciprocity says that we should do the same for other. It’s difficult. We’ll fail. We’ll fail often. Just keep it in your sights as your goal. I’m going to leave it at that, go and learn.
Wise Madness 