The Bus Driver

It's another beautiful morning in California. Another day of putting on my uniform. Boy, what has it been now, 23 years working for Greyhound? I jump on the bus and put it in gear. My first stop day after day is Monterey. A nice little vacation spot for most. Especially nice in the morning when it is not fogged in. I pick up my passengers and a few packages, and off we go. Just a few mostly young passengers. I would expect Greyhound would shut this section down since it is hardly profitable. Nice to get going and on the road again and head into life. Why is religion so concerned with death? There are so many things that can happen after we die. We could live in an ideal place. We could come back and live as something or someone else. Maybe we could be reborn and live in another universe just the same. Or choose a person, and live like them in another place and time. Or maybe we just stop. Why are some of these so complicated?

But why aren't religions concerned about what happens before we are born? Do we just start? Do we come from other places? It's kind of hard to believe that we just start at some point in time when there was nothing before. But are there really more people living all of the time? Maybe they come from some other world?

Whoa, that car stopped awfully suddenly. Now I have to shift through all the gears to get back up to speed. This bus is really groaning now. Where did this bus come from? It has glass, rubber, steel, parts from all over that all had previous lives. I don't know if steel had a previous life, but it did come from somewhere. After it dies, its parts all go different places. The bus's birth does seem happier than its death. Is the bus really alive? Does it have a purpose? The people that built it had a purpose for it. Are those people the God of the bus? Do people have a purpose that is defined by their god? Does that mean that a person's God needs to have a purpose defined by another God? Or is it one of those magical Gods that sort of is the master of everything?

There's the Watsonville station. This will be a short stop. I will just get a warm roll for breakfast. Nice that they prepare it for me every day. I get back on the bus and check the passengers. Yep, looks ok, no freeloaders today. It feels like this bus is mine. I know that Greyhound owns it, but when I am driving, I have all of the control. If a passenger hasn't paid, I control what happens. I get more respect because of the uniform. It really feels like I own the bus. Does Greyhound really own the bus? It does seem to own it while it is alive. Then things get fuzzy. Some parts may become owned by others, and other parts no longer have an owner. Does that mean that some parts are no longer controlled by a God?

Time to head to Santa Cruz. Boy, the transmission sounds kind of rough again. Every bus seems to have its own personality. If it breaks down, it will have cheated its God. It will have changed its fate and destiny. Actually its fate could change at any time anyway. The route could be changed, or it could be put on another route. Is there such a thing as fate, and what does it mean if fate changes sometimes? And does the bus really have some control over its fate by deciding when to fail?

There's the Santa Cruz station. Boy the passengers are pretty different here. Tattoos, long wild hair, piercings, you name it. Sure are a lot of non-conformists. When we get to San Jose, we will see the opposite. I am kind of the bridge between these people. Time to head up the mountain towards San Jose. These mountain roads make the bus work pretty hard. Its payment seems pretty simple. Mainly some fuel, and maybe some maintenance. The bus service overall seems to be generally a good thing. Providing service that is economical and environmental. The bus didn't decide to do a good thing. It was imposed by its God. I guess breaking down isn't really a good thing though. The bus could be bad by running into a car, but that would cause the bus some pain also. Causing pain seems to make the life more difficult for the bus. Although the bus motor is always taking in good stuff, and putting out bad stuff. How does God really get involved in all of this? Is there really such a thing as good and bad? Is it really a lot more complicated for people?

Wow, that Porsche almost cut me off. I wonder what it would have been like to have been a tester of cars for a magazine. It might be kind of fun to drive so many different cars. I wonder if some gods are more envious of other gods. Maybe having one god is really a lot simpler.

Finally made it to the San Jose station. It seems to be all city from here. On to San Francisco. Just some flat highway from now on. The bus can sure run smoothly on this easy road. How would a bus pray to its god? Some buses seem to have bad health right from the start, and some buses die earlier than others. Some lives are more difficult also. It is so crowded here, so many cars just passing through the bus's life for an instant. Nobody really makes friends with a bus. Can it really just drive on the same roads its whole life? What is my purpose? Always the same roads. I am also sort of good and sort of bad. I try to give good service, but at the same time I am also taking in good fuel, and putting out waste. Waste.

Here's San Francisco. It's not like Santa Cruz or San Jose. It is already getting dark, and has been a long day. I drop off the passengers, but don't let any others board. When the bus is empty, I finally can achieve my goal. I head out of the lot and through some industrial sections of San Francisco. I finally get to my destination. There is a large junkyard. I shift through the gears, have the engine groaning and really have some speed. I can spot a large truck and head directly towards it. I can simplify the world. No more questions.