Leaving Eugene today for a 15 day visit to my old home in the midwest. Arose with the sun, secured my travel pack, and made the 40 minute walk to the bus station under calm skies. Waiting in line at the station a heavy set, older man took a liking to me and began to talk. I was struck by his candor and honesty, and with one of his stories of bus travel. Boarding a new bus, he found it to be crowded and asked a man if he could sit in the seat next to him. The man was using the empty seat as a storage space for his belongings, and refused the man's request. "he wanted to kick my ass for asking him to sit next to him. I considered getting into it with him, but decided against it." He went on to talk of his concerns about finding a seat on our soon to be ride to Portland. I did not say much of anything, just listened intently and was bemused with the differences in people's experiences and thoughts about them. I thought how fortunate I have been to have rarely gotten into disputes with people, perhaps one advantage of always spending my time alone. He then said "I have to learn how to defuse situations." Here was a man, perhaps 50-55, trying to learn a basic, yet elusive, skill - the art of peace. "Perhaps it's my pride....the problem is I am competitive....I know I should turn the other cheek, but...." Various images appeared in my mind, but I did not know if anything I could say would help him in his quest for peace, so I remained a silent listener.
As we boarded the bus the man took the first available seat he came to, and I ended up sitting next to a gray haired man missing his two front teeth. He also took a liking to me and spoke during most of the 100 mile trip to Portland. He told me his journey started in North Carolina on Amtrak. In Salt Lake City he was pushed aside by an impatient traveler and he fell to the ground and broke his two front teeth, and he opened his mouth to show me the dark space where only 2 days before had been two healthy teeth. In San Diego Amtrak refused to allow him to board a new train due to not having a valid picture ID. "I have a valid picture ID, from the Catholic Church in Rome, but they refused it." He then asked the attendant to watch his bag while he took a crap in the restroom. When he returned his bag was gone. "And just now, when I got off the bus in Eugene for a smoke, I left my sunglasses on my seat and when I returned they were gone." His string of poor fortune in a short period of time made me consider karma, luck, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He told me was en route to Seattle where he was going to work for six months on a large boat , a converted air craft carrier, which was moored in the Bearing Sea. At one time he was an airline pilot, but when Diabetes afflicted him he took a marketing job for the airline. Now 70, he worked six months a year on the ship to keep busy more so than for the money. Having been a pilot, he had traveled to many places in the world, one of his favorite being Greece. He knew a famous museum curator there, and one evening the curator invited him to dinner. "I was sick of the Greek food, and really wanted a juicy steak. I told Milo how I craved a steak, and he said no problem, let me talk to the chef. A few minutes later Milo came back and said the chef would make me a steak. Well, I thought he was jerking me around, but sure enough, the waiter eventually arrived with a baked potato and a giant slab of meat. It was perfect, I was in heaven as I ate. When I finished, Milo asked if I had liked it. I told him I did, very much so. When we got up from the table to leave, Milo took me through the back door of the restaurant, where we saw hanging from a hook a freshly killed cow. "Milo, that cow looks awfully thin", to which he replied, "David, that is not a cow, it is a horse".
