The Light Of The Human Spirit

I believe in “the light” of the human spirit. It occurs anywhere and oftentimes goes unnoticed. I experience “the light” on my daily bus commute, which encourages and inspires me to continue to believe in the human spirit.

Before I started my bus commute, I always drove in my car by myself. Unknowingly, my solo commute isolated me from experiencing more of the human spirit — in all its faceted forms beyond my car windows.

When gazing out the window as my bus takes its route through downtown, I see outside my bubble of humanity. The father walking across the street with his two small sons when one son asserts his independence briefly by pulling his hand out from his father’s before he puts it back. I see the woman with the misshapen face and wonder about her experience and facing each day. I see an older homeless woman carrying a baby, but looking closer, I realize it’s just a doll. She carries it gently, as if it were a real baby and I wonder what circumstances brought her to this point in her life and the obvious comfort she gets from holding a doll baby.

The bus driver travels to the next scheduled stop and the people I have seen fade in the distance, but they remain, inserted into a slot of my memory bank.

I’ve come to know the regular faces that ride my route each day. The elderly woman who good-naturedly fusses at the driver for running merely seconds behind. Or, the man who wears the same cap every day and listens to his radio through big red earphones. The man with the seeing-eye dog always has a smile on his face — for a reason known only to him. Am I the only one who notices? Other sighted passengers direct another blind rider to his seat, calling out, “Bob, aisle seat on your left.” I unknowingly look for the “regulars” to say good morning to or just note to make sure I’m on the right bus — whew, if they are, then I am too. Yet again, I experience “the light” of the human spirit.

“The light” may only momentarily flicker or it may shine like a lighthouse beacon. I see “the light” in many places, but perhaps, as a bus passenger for a certain length of time, I take the time to notice. My senses and emotions are engaged and impacted by the gift of this human spirit I would not otherwise experience — a mixture of ages, sizes, shapes, sexes, races, educations, life experiences, incomes and occupations.

At times it seems more and more of the human spirit is being engulfed by the dark side, but the gift of “the light” of the human spirit is one that gives me hope that all is not lost and the dark side will not conquer.