On the bus this morning, I noticed an older man sitting in front of me reading from A4 pieces of paper. He turned each page quietly, stopping to rest every now and then between sentences. I had an urge to tap him on the shoulder and ask him what he was reading, I dont know why. But I didnt. Suddenly, the bus stopped. The driver informed us that we all had to get off and board the bus in front of us. I got up, and so did the man sitting in front of me, and we took the exact same seats on the new bus, which I thought was interesting. He turned in his seat to face me - and realising there wasnt a driver on our new bus - with a twinkle in his eye and an Irish tilt, asked me if I knew how to drive a bus. I said, No, but I reckon I could if I had to. And he agreed he could too. There, I said, You and I, we could co-drive the bus and everything would be ok. And then we both laughed. He asked me what I do. I told him. I asked him what he does. Im a philosopher, he said. And that was it. I was all ears. Imagine. A man on the bus, who I had only just met. A philosopher. He told me about his life, how he worked for big companies once, as a management consultant. Why did you stop? I asked. Because theres more to life than making someone else lots of money. The bus driver boarded the bus, engine on, foot on the pedal. Moving. And for the next 40 minutes, the man sitting in front of me on the bus spoke his words, and I listened, fascinated. You know why people are stuck? Its because they spend 50% of their time falling in holes, and 50% of time climbing back out of them. People dont have any time for anything else, theres no leisure time when youre avoiding falling in a hole. Anyone can call themselves a manager; they get paid the managers wage and they have the manager title, but most people dont have a clue what theyre doing. Being a manager is hard. Its lonely and you have to have courage. And integrity, its ALL about integrity. If you say youre going to do something, if youre working towards something, then youve got to just do it. And hes right. So right. You do. His name is Ken. I gave him my email address. Were going to write to each other. He likes walking in the Surrey Hills. And talking to people about life, about being a human in this weird, complicated, beautiful world we live in. And so do I. So do I.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 11:07:32 +0000
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