Waiting for a bus

I had an interesting start to an otherwise routine Monday.

Metro in Los Angeles had a portion of their light rail service closed all along Washington Blvd. for the weekend. The closure was due to end last evening. As what sometimes with any construction, it went a bit past schedule.

The light rail I ride stopped at the Washington Blvd. stop, everyone disembarked and slowly started to queue for Metro buses which arrived every few minutes to pick up commuters from across the street from the stop, then shuttled through four remaining stops in the route.

I could use this forum to grouse about the construction delays, the bumpy bus ride, the 30 minute wait on my still recuperating legs (never mind the rest of the walk and ride to work after the bus trip with stiff joints and sore thigh muscles).

or

I'll write about the mass of humanity shuffling along while others skipped ahead of the queue by skipping into the street only to be abruptly placed back into line by one of the many Sheriff's Deputies keeping the foot and motor traffic running.

I met two teachers while waiting for the bus: one an ESL teacher of adults and the other a literature teacher of high school juniors. We and others around us kept reminding each other that it could be colder outside, it could still be prior to sunrise, it could have been raining.

A large black bird on top of a telephone pole squawking, ruffling its back feathers was causing the crowd around the pole scattering in different directions and the bird was having its . . uh . . morning constitutional.

Each comment, each turn around to view the crowd in front of us and the never-ending mass of commuters from more arriving trains, every wisecrack and passing catering truck with cruel promises of hot coffee on a cold fall morning, elicited laughs, giggles, snorts (from me - freaking deviated septum!) and a far more relaxed atmosphere than it could have been.

So, I got to work 45 minutes late today. I took some comfort that a few thousand others were in the same figurative boat as I was and was grateful to God for all the ways a potential disaster was turned into a chance to interact with fellow commuters and find the basic goodness in most everyone.