The other day I witnessed something that struck me as particularly Taoist, and since I owe two posts today I thought I would take this moment to share. This is also the first post that I’m writing on my new iPhone through Wordpress’ handy application, so here’s to hoping for more frequent posts.
There is a bus driver who works a particular route that I take to work. Now, a lot of the drivers that I have interacted with here in Vancouver are very easy going. I guess you sort of have to be in some parts of this city. I don’t know if this is endemic in their particular occupation, having to deal with tourists and the homeless, or perhaps it’s part of our supposedly natural Canadian politeness. In any case, giving people breaks on their fare, especially on the first of the
month when people might have forgotten to buy a new pass, is fairly common.
But that isn’t true of this driver. This guy is firm. No, you can’t ride for free, and you can’t pay for only one zone if you’re just “passing through” the second zone. You pay the full fare, or you don’t ride. This driver has stopped the bus at the terminus of the first zone, walked up to people who got a one zone ticket, and insisted they either pay for the extra zone or get off. People don’t argue, they know that they won’t win this one.
This might not seem like a big deal, but it really falls to the sides of the bell curve of normal behavior that I have learned to expect from bus drivers. This is a man who obviously believes in the rules. Very black and white, and not very Taoist.
One morning a woman comes on and pays for one zone, even though she will be going through two. The driver informs her that she can’t do that, she disagrees claiming that she has done this before, obviously to no ill effect. They quickly come to an impass, she takes a seat and the driver calls transit security to get her escorted off the bus. So now we have to wait at the station until this is resolved. It is early in the morning, everyone has somewhere to go, and no one is impressed.
Then this young guy stands up. He’s around my age, mid-twenties, calm and collected as rain water. He walks up to the woman and offers to pay the rest of her fare. She is noncommittal about the offer. She doesn’t want to be dragged off the bus but she doesn’t want to admit that she is wrong either. The man then goes to the driver, explains his plan, pays, and gives the woman the new ticket.
She doesn’t thank him, but that doesn’t matter. We are on our way and we spent barely a minute waiting. Again, this may not seem strange, a random stranger doing a good deed. It was the way he did it though, like it was nothing to him. He showed neither pleasure nor displeasure in the act, no pride nor sense of good will. I had the impression that he asked permission from the woman to pay her fare not because he wanted to or thought it was proper to ask, but because if he hadn’t it would have been a hindrance to his solution. If he had just bought her a ticket and tried to give it to her without any prompting it might not have been as effective as going through the motions that he did. The fare needed to be paid, that was it.
This situation in and of itself wasn’t particarly Taoist, but the way this guy carried himself was. He flowed like water, seeking the path of least resistance. It was fascinating to watch.
I dont’ carry change with me, but if I had I probably would have done the same, as would other people on the bus had they the time to think it over. But all of us lacked the immediacy and effortlessness of this young man, the “doing without doing” characterized by the Way.
Or least that is what I told myself.