Let's Look At Our Actions to See...How Selfish Are We?

I ride the bus to and from work everyday (and its free too!).

The other day, on my way home from work, the bus driver ended up side-swiping a suburban.

I seemed to be the only person that actually noticed the accident, because everyone else was completely oblivious to what had happened.

When the woman sitting next to me looked over and said “I wonder why we’re still sitting here.” I decided to tell the secret.

I stated “We hit that truck” while gesturing to the SUV beside us.

Of course, several others heard this, and starting asking questions. It was true; no one else had heard the “thud.”

In this moment, everyone was still pretty calm, and I wanted things to remain this way.

This was a driver (an older grandfatherly gentleman) that I was accustomed to seeing and one that I had planned on giving a Christmas card to (but never got around to doing so), so I decided to go up and ask him what was going on.

[Note: There are at least 43 other people on this bus who could have done the same thing I was about to do.]

I approached him, and asked for an approximate time regarding what time the next bus would be coming. I also asked him about his holidays, and made small talk, because he never seemed to smile or talk and I was really wondering how he was doing.

Before I could get back to seat, a bold (a.k.a. RUDE) woman asked me what was going on. After I told her, she and progressively the remaining passengers, exited the bus.

As she got off, she complained loudly, and said that she would report him (for getting into an A-C-C-I-D-E-N-T?!).

As we all walked to the next bus stop, which was only about 40 feet or so ahead of the accident site, the woman continued to complain as another young girl joined in.

I interrupted “He was going to let you off the bus, he was just a little nervous about the accident.” This was a mistake, as she retorted “He’s always nervous! People have stuff to do…” and she trailed off into the land of complaint.

Right before I exited the bus, I told the man “I hope you have a great day.” To which he kind of shook his head to signify that the accident had kind of placed a “dent” in that plan. I then corrected my statement by saying “I hope you have as good as a day as you can have considering the circumstances.” He laughed a little, said thanks, and returned the sentiment.

Which person would you have been? Would you have fussed and cussed as if the person had purposely collided with the other vehicle?

How often do we demand what we want when we want it, as if the world really does revolve around us? Although in this specific situation, he did have passengers to consider, he also had his job to consider. He was only trying to get to his stops at the scheduled time.

Before we complain, before we fuss, before we cuss, before we yell, before we cop an attitude, let’s take a second…take a minute…take a moment to consider the other person.

You don’t know what type of hours that person may be working, you have no idea what their circumstances may be, you don’t know what may be going on in their families.

It’s true that they don’t know any of that info about you either, but just be the bigger person. Be the stronger person. Be the considerate person that you would want someone else to be to you.