Call me crazy, but one of my favorite parts of Dublin is the public transport. It’s a love/hate relationship, really. I love watching the people, but I also hate crowds, and I REALLY hate being touched by strangers. That being said, I’ve found that public transport has restored my hope in humanity. Imagine the following scene: Young Man walks onto the bus, sits down in the only empty seat. Young Man is in his own world, listening to who-knows-what on his headphones and staring toward the poorly designed, dotted rubber floor. While staring at the floor, Young Man notices a pair of old sneakers, accompanied four legs of a walker or maybe even two wheels of a baby stroller. Without hesitation, Young Man smiles, leaps up, and offers his seat to the old man/woman/mother; he smiles, grabs a pole for balance, and continues glaring at the floor.
It’s a small thing to offer your chair to someone else, but I still smile every time I see it happen. It highlights the rare and often elusive selfless nature of humanity. When I contemplate how much I hate riding on a jam-packed LUAS or a seat-less bus, I just have to remember that I don’t have a wheelchair or a child or a walker to make matters worse. I could easily walk to my destination, but some people don’t have that option at all. I’m a lucky lass indeed.
