After (voluntarily) surrendering my car space for work in early February 2014 I have been using public transport to commute to work since then. It spend about 45 minutes to travel between home and work and I utilize the time to listen to a symphony or a concerto per day.
A few days ago there was an accident on the bus. I was listening to Dvorak Cello Concerto and I saw a woman who was doing a makeup and using her mobile phone simultaneously while she was standing. Two ideas immediately came to my head – women can really multitask and never underestimate the power of makeup.
The moment of diverting my focus to Pierre Fournier’s play , I heard something – the multitasking woman fell because she was not holding the handle properly. Assuming that she is an ordinary person with an average intelligence, she would have been embarrassed because of her own fault. However, she started accusing the bus driver explicitly as the source of the embarrassment and endlessly expressing a series of impulsive comments to discrediting the bus driver.
Under normal circumstances I would have intervened but I was mellowed by the music hence I decided to stay away from it and let someone restore the peace. Soon an old man stood up and said in a very unrelenting and assertive manner – “Lady, I understand that you are upset. However, this is a public bus full of civilized people. With all due respect, there are the handles to grab but no cage for farm animals available that prevents from falling on this bus.” She said no more afterwards.
“The ability to control our impulses helps distinguish us from animals and represents our psychological maturity” – I am pretty sure my mother told this me when I was young.
