Rush to slow down (922 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 1.9 on 31 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by The Yellow Dart (View user info) at 2006-02-06 14:57:36 EST
The bus squeaks to a halt to let myself and a few others on board. I make my way to the back and grab a window seat seconds before we're jerked back into motion. We've got to keep moving, I guess. The sky is clouded over and its spitting cold rain drops down upon the world. Bad weather wouldn't stop these people from bustling around though.
Cars zoom everywhere by my window. Who knows where they're going, but they all presumably have some destination in mind. We stop at a light and a minivan with three kids and a woman who I assume is their mother who is talking on a cell phone and commandeering the vehicle at the same time pulls up beside us. She looks distressed about the phone call, who knows why, as far as I can tell the person on the other end of the line is controlling her life. Each commandment told through the phone: "raise your head 3 inches" "look left" "reply".
I wonder if she's noticing her children growing up behind her. They seem to be well behaved; sitting quietly and absorbing it all. I think you can teach stress and anxiety as well as happiness and peacefulness. I sure hope the quiet kids are daydreaming; blocking out the hectic life that their child-seat straps them into so securely, with visions of vivid adventures that a grey day's gloom could never suppress. Repetitive travel in a concrete jungle could do that to a person though; they grow up fastest when they figure out what boredom is.
If I had kids I would paint the inside of my van with psychedelic colours. But before I can really get into how I would change the drab white van of safety into life on wheels the light turns green and they speed off, making a dangerous lane change in the distance. Some kids are walking to school along the sidewalk; some adults, to work. One leg ahead of the other seems to be the general mentality of them all. It would be abnormal to see someone just standing on the sidewalk unless they were waiting for the bus.
Just stopping mid-stride while walking and not moving for even a few minutes would weird people out. You really have to be moving towards something at all times. I mean, what the fuck is wrong with someone who just stops for no apparent reason? It's like they forgot what we're all here for; what we're working towards here. Which is...which is...
Being part of it all seems so surreal when you think about it. Each person trekking somewhere with that destination floating around in their conscious, but also thinking of numerous other things at the same time; like me, for example. Thousands of issues are all out there, in the craniums of everyone within my line of sight; it's cluttering to think about. Like dumping a truckload of different magazines on your bedroom floor and trying to sift through them all at once. Well, they all have a few things in common at a glance: they're all a bunch of ideas strewn together in a tight layer system, stacked together. Well over half of the ideas in all of them are unoriginal and "placed" ideals that have conveniently formed their own picture of life and goals you should try to snag.
The bus is getting more crowded by now and an old lady gets on. A young man near the front of the bus offers up his seat to her; she finally gets to rest after a life of rushing around. There's little fuel left in her tank, but she's still going; grudgingly. The young man still has some rush left in him, obviously.
There are few things more interesting in life than to just watch people. Something about what propels them; makes them move. Not biologically; I mean mentally. The control station that sits up in your skull and runs reality, we know so little of it. You have one. Does yours always tell you what's going on? I mean, do you get all the information from it or do you just comply to the limited info you're given? You must know that it's not telling you everything.
My stop is coming up so I prepare by making my way through the full isle towards the door. Already I'm thinking of something else: where I'm going to get some food. We're all too busy living to think about some things I guess; like why we're living. "Shut up and do it". Another screeching halt and I'm off the bus and already walking to my destination.
A man is sitting on a park bench nearby and seems to be watching me. I'd say he's around 60, but based on how relaxed and at peace he looks he could be 120 for all I know. A smile is nestled on his face as he watches me rush by. I know what he's thinking; I just had those thoughts a little while ago.
I stop mid-stride and just stand there thinking. Where the hell am I going anyways? (well I know that much) Why? (umm, because I should?) Is this what I want; what I really want? (no, definitely not). A few minutes have passed and two business-dressed people pass by me coming in the opposite direction. They make sure I see their strange looks. I'm smiling though, I realize. They looked confused. And I'm smiling.
That was enough for me. I turn 90 degrees and join the elderly man on the park bench who greets me with a nod and a wink.
Turns out he was 83 years young and living on his own terms. We talked a bit and laughed a bit, but also just sat in silence, watching the people rush by giving us dirty looks of jealousy or mangled looks of confusion.
None of them stopped or took the time to ask how we lived.
What's the point, right? They've got places to go, people to meet, things to see; they have to be careful: life's nipping at their heels. Heaven forbid it catches up with them.
User Reviews
Submitted by The_Yellow_Dart (user info) at 2006-02-07 18:36:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2006-02-07 16:49:50 (#)
Ranking: 2
(...and an in-depth knowledge of the lifeskills necessary should I ever find myself mother to a teenage whore or married to a horse)
______
Yes, but how does one go about displaying this in a shine-like setting? Apart from actually doing said things and tying them to a totem pole, which would keep them straight too, by the way.
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2006-02-07 16:49:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by The_Yellow_Dart (user info) at 2006-02-07 16:44:42 (#)
Ranking: 0
It's symbolic! Like... umm... that you need no material objects to represent you when you're standing right there.
Yeah. That's it. ;)
Tough Love.
===
Fuck your tough love - *I* have a hat and mittens
(...and an in-depth knowledge of the lifeskills necessary should I ever find myself mother to a teenage whore or married to a horse)
Submitted by The_Yellow_Dart (user info) at 2006-02-07 16:44:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2006-02-07 16:37:25 (#)
Ranking: 2
How DARE you sir. Why, I knitted myself a hat and pair of mittens whilst watching Sally Jessie Raphael reruns just this week. No life indeed. Pfffh.
_______________
It's symbolic! Like... umm... that you need no material objects to represent you when you're standing right there.
Yeah. That's it. ;)
Tough Love.
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2006-02-07 16:37:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by The_Yellow_Dart (user info) at 2006-02-06 15:26:37 (#)
Ranking: 0
Entitled: "Filthy's Life"
Set: In a corner
First guest: So, uh, where is it?
FA: Right in front of you.
FG: I don't see anything though...
FA: Exactly.
===
How DARE you sir. Why, I knitted myself a hat and pair of mittens whilst watching Sally Jessie Raphael reruns just this week. No life indeed. Pfffh.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2006-02-07 16:35:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This made me think of Mr. Wendal.
Submitted by YELLOW-MAN (user info) at 2006-02-07 08:50:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2006-02-07 08:44:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
For some reason this post reminds me of Bob Ross.
Bob Ross = auto+2
Submitted by Nellypaal (user info) at 2006-02-07 06:20:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Nice thoughts but a little clumsily written in places.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-02-06 22:37:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by The_Yellow_Dart (user info) at 2006-02-06 20:33:11 (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-02-06 17:55:54 (#)
Ranking: 2
you are one of my favorite posters.
________________
Right next to the cat barely hanging onto a branch with the saying "Hang in there!"?
------------
a little to the left.
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2006-02-06 21:51:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
*sigh*
Submitted by The_Yellow_Dart (user info) at 2006-02-06 20:33:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-02-06 17:55:54 (#)
Ranking: 2
you are one of my favorite posters.
________________
Right next to the cat barely hanging onto a branch with the saying "Hang in there!"?
Submitted by Oxymoron (user info) at 2006-02-06 18:42:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
OK I've read it now...Excellent work.
Sometimes you just need to stop and smell the roses to really understand what life is about.
Submitted by Bob_Dole (user info) at 2006-02-06 18:40:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
you've motivated me to quit my job today!
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2006-02-06 18:35:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2006-02-06 16:05:12 (#)
Ranking: 2
"Just stopping mid-stride while walking and not moving for even a few minutes would weird people out. You really have to be moving towards something at all times. I mean, what the fuck is wrong with someone who just stops for no apparent reason?"
---------------------------
I once walked into the lunchroom at school. I noticed how this principle drives everyone. To fill the silence with something...to keep going at the expense of the moment... I let out a caterwailing scream. Everyone stopped what they were doing and for a few precious moments were completely silent as they stared at me...expecting...
I gave them nothing more. Just turned and walked out as looks of utter puzzlement draped over their faces.
And it was beautiful. ""
and then they kicked the shit out of you?
Submitted by Oxymoron (user info) at 2006-02-06 18:31:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 for the title...I'll read the rest later
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-02-06 18:30:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The Yellow Dart strikes again!
Submitted by The_Yellow_Dart (user info) at 2006-02-06 18:29:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2006-02-06 16:05:12 (#)
Ranking: 2
I once walked into the lunchroom at school. I noticed how this principle drives everyone. To fill the silence with something...to keep going at the expense of the moment... I let out a caterwailing scream. Everyone stopped what they were doing and for a few precious moments were completely silent as they stared at me...expecting...
I gave them nothing more. Just turned and walked out as looks of utter puzzlement draped over their faces.
And it was beautiful.
_______________
So true. It's a commonly held belief that kids can't appreciate silence, I would say that they could if they weren't raised to constantly need to do things. Not saying that activity is a bad thing, but if the reason for it is simply so the parents don't have to deal with them then...
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-02-06 17:55:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
you are one of my favorite posters.
Submitted by ruthless (user info) at 2006-02-06 16:32:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I like this because it is an interesting way of telling an old, oft-repeated story.
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2006-02-06 16:24:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
food and shelter are great motivators though.
Submitted by punkerrjess (user info) at 2006-02-06 16:23:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is good. Makes you stop reading Uber, turn down the radio, and just sit there at work and think.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2006-02-06 16:19:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"Does yours always tell you what's going on? I mean, do you get all the information from it or do you just comply to the limited info you're given? You must know that it's not telling you everything."
---------------------
Seeing is too painful. It forces us to consider. Considering leads to more pain as we swiftly discover it's all comprised to circles and that we've done all this before.
No one likes to think that they are just another rat in a cage. But sometimes, the contrast of seeing against the backdrop of so much self-denial can be enrapturing. There is a beauty in stillness that can never be killed - not by a thousand chattering voices...not by a thousand chattering cannons.
It's where our souls long to get back to - where they really belong.
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2006-02-06 16:10:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Really, really good.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2006-02-06 16:05:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"Just stopping mid-stride while walking and not moving for even a few minutes would weird people out. You really have to be moving towards something at all times. I mean, what the fuck is wrong with someone who just stops for no apparent reason?"
---------------------------
I once walked into the lunchroom at school. I noticed how this principle drives everyone. To fill the silence with something...to keep going at the expense of the moment... I let out a caterwailing scream. Everyone stopped what they were doing and for a few precious moments were completely silent as they stared at me...expecting...
I gave them nothing more. Just turned and walked out as looks of utter puzzlement draped over their faces.
And it was beautiful.
Submitted by GodLovesALittleLovin (user info) at 2006-02-06 16:03:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Good stuff. I wish people would READ things like the good old days of.....when that never happened either.
Submitted by The_Yellow_Dart (user info) at 2006-02-06 15:26:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2006-02-06 15:02:52 (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm erecting a shrine.
________
Entitled: "Filthy's Life"
Set: In a corner
First guest: So, uh, where is it?
FA: Right in front of you.
FG: I don't see anything though...
FA: Exactly.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-02-06 15:21:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
~~~does anybody really know what time it is, does anybody really care~~~
Submitted by freebie (user info) at 2006-02-06 15:07:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Makes me want to move to mexico nad live in a grass hut
Submitted by ahumblefool (user info) at 2006-02-06 15:06:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Never disappoint
Submitted by leilani (user info) at 2006-02-06 15:02:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
plus four
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2006-02-06 15:02:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Ok, that's it. That's the final fucking straw. I'm erecting a shrine.