I
love vacations. Getting away from the routine and visiting new places always
gives me a thrill. But, as much as I
love visiting friends and seeing cool stuff, I love availing myself of public
transportation. While we were in San
Francisco, Steve and I made our way around the City thanks to MUNI busses and
cable cars. Our $21, 3-day pass got us
everywhere we wanted to go for less than the cost of one night’s parking
fee.
Of
course, “PT” is not as beloved out here in the Midwest, the home of Ford, Chrysler,
and General Motors. Buses and trains
take the place of cars, you know. For
me, that’s the point. I’ve never been a
fan of driving. It’s something I have to
do. It’s something I’d rather someone else did.
I can get a lot of knitting done, or just enjoy the view, when I don’t
have to pay attention to the road.
Public
transportation holds another advantage for me.
It puts me in touch with a city’s people. The cable cars are a fun treat for a tourist,
but they are everyday transportation to a lot of people in the Bay area. C. S. Lewis used a bus to transport people
between heaven and hell in his book The Great Divorce. On the busses, I saw people of all ages, all
colors, all economic strata. It’s a lot
like what I think heaven will be. (Honestly,
I think hell will be like walking up to Nob Hill…never mind that beautiful
Grace Cathedral’s at the end of the road! But, I digress…)
I
invite you to drive your car to a suburban Park and Ride someday soon. Don’t take an express bus – it’s full of people
just like you. Instead, take a local and travel along with the people who make
up this metropolitan area. Let it be a
reminder to you of the diversity of people with whom God has peppered this
planet. Let it help you remember that
not all of us share in the advantages of suburban living and that, for many,
the bus is their way to work or to the grocery store or to the doctor’s
office.
I
wonder. Perhaps if we had better public
transportation, we might have a little better understanding of each other. Busses and trains certainly cut across a
bunch of barriers. Then, again, are we
willing to let those barriers disappear?
