A SHORT TRIP TELLS A LOT

Man’s life is like a trip on a public bus. At times sitting on number 500T, at other times standing on the Metrobus… It picks up pace in certain places, and it stops in others, but it always goes forward. Such times come when he feels he won’t be able get out of traffic and get to his terminus. He gets bored; he gets frustrated; he huffs and puffs, but he’s powerless: he has to wait and he has to be patient to get to his destination. Man exists as much as he can last in this life and he is as valuable as he exists. Just like he looks for an empty seat in excitement when he gets on the bus at the first station, man is born into this world with a similar hope and works to find comfort. Yet it is sometimes hard for man to find what he expects but he should not lose hope. Early comers have taken all the seats but this is where human determination kicks in: if he starts to wait by the right person, he can take the seat when it becomes vacant. If, on the other hand, he hopelessly stands by the door where there are no seats, he suffices with yielding to departing passengers. And his hopelessness keeps snowballing each time he sees someone else find a vacant seat. Perseverance is thus essential, yet it is not sufficient per se. Man should pick where he will wait very carefully. He too can sit in a seat when the time comes, either through largesse of a public spirited person or as a reward for waiting at the right spot.

In fact, it is not a question of having a comfortable trip at all times. What makes man happy is not the trip he has sitting in a seat but the peace he feels at heart when he offers his seat to an elder or a pregnant woman; it is the nice smile he gets in return.

Human life is always in a state of motion like the trip on the public bus. At times its passenger is startled by the sudden brake; at others eyes are fixed to the road ahead for fast maneuvers, accompanied by a faster beating heart and nagging worries. Similarly, life progresses with such rights and wrongs; man sometimes walks on air and sometimes stands aghast desperately watching life.

One way or another, man gets to the terminal station, after times of hard work and exhaustion or happiness and ambition. What matters is whether man knows the station he will get off at. There are such times when man does not know which station to get off despite all the hard work and times when he misses the station despite all the warnings because he does not act on time. He is simply left with the troubles he’s had, in the evening of a tiring day.