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Night Bus Stop Epiphany: Be Kind

Ok, so I recently got a paradigm shift at the most unexpected of times. This past Thursday night I went to meet up for a late night chat with a friend before going home. I had to take two buses and two subways to get there but it didn't matter, I needed to talk. So much had happened that day as a result of some negative BS that was flung my way for no good reason. Anyways we chatted for an hr up until 11:45 pm and I guess clarity finally came because when I took the bus back home the unexpected would happen...

That Night.
So it's Thursday night and I'm standing at the front of this bus (so I wouldn't miss my stop) and all of a sudden I hear some loud expletives. I turn around to see this Black woman cussing two other Black women about what I don't know. I found it quite strange that this woman was cussing these two women and that they weren't even responding to her, they just looked on, only mumbling to themselves. Anyway, the bus came to a halt at my stop. I came off and so did a few other people. We had to wait on another bus at this stop in order to get to our destinations. By the time I got to the bus shelter I realized that the same woman came off the bus too and much to my surprise she was cussing somebody else. That somebody was me!

What She Said...
Here was this woman, unknown to me before the bus ride, cursing me. First she told me not to look at her like we come from the same place because we don't. Then she said she could sense that I had no love in my heart for her, no love in my heart. I just stared blankly ahead and listened. Then she went on and on in a banter listing countries where she thought I was from and then deciding that I must be Latino or Mexicano so she could not relate to me. That's when I figured out that she was mentally ill. Ironically, I was the one more than anybody else at the bus stop who could relate to her. I was black, female and the only one who understood "bomboclaat".
It became even more of a spectacle when she went around to the different people at the bus stop cussing them about individualized things. Her words were hateful and she was trying her very best to wound us with her words. When she realized she was being ignored, she turned on herself. She just stood there having a cussing match with herself. I literally heard three distinct personalities coming from this one woman and one was more hateful and angry than the others. It was after 12 in the morning and scary to say the least. Then thankfully the bus came. This bus ride home gave me some time to reflect on all that had happened that day and at the bus stop.

It Made Me Think...
So many people in First World and Third World countries are suffering from some form of mental illness, yet it is one of those societal issues that never see the limelight up there with the famous PACs (Poverty Aids Cancers). When I looked at the woman alone, in the night, in her affliction, I wondered if there was anyone who cared where she was and what she was doing. I wondered what life stresses could have caused this to happen to her. I wondered if the manifestation of her illness was tied to loneliness, being unloved and ignored. I wondered if there was any real and lasting help for people like her and then I wondered how ordinary people like me could make a difference in the lives of people like her. That's when these two words came to mind...

BE KIND.

~Love God,Live life,One Enkounter at a Time~
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