Sunday, December 30, 2007

Sun. Dec. 30/07 - Montreal, Quebec
I rolled my luggage for a good 4kms down to the bus depot in Toronto ready for a journey to Montreal. Thank God for decent sidewalks otherwise the baggage with wheels could not have survived the torture.
The experience at the bus depot at the peak of Christmas time was nothing but mayhem. Congestion, passenger line-ups were erroneously merged for Montreal and New York, extra buses pulled up to deal with the volume of people but it wasn’t enough, many of us were left waiting, public phones were not functioning with the recent conversion of the new 50 cents charge after the 25 cent hike. I was near the front of the line for the third additional bus when it was announced that now the bus is waiting in another lane. After a mad rush for all to relocate it meant now I ended up at the end of the line. Such disorder! I WAS CONSIDERING A TICKET REFUND AND WENT TO THE TICKET COUNTER. There was no empathy. Fury enflamed me but I found I had no recourse but to cool down, tolerate and drive for humility. I decided to go to the customer services counter. And a woman there lodged her personal complaints in a particularly loud voice saying “ You’re treating me like this because I’m a black woman!” Funny thing is that the person on the other side of the counter was also black. Many things made little sense.
I could not wait to ascend the stairs of the designated bus. Eventually I resolved to “let go” of any bitterness.
A young chap approached me while in line and asked if I was “The walking monk”. Finally I handed my ticket to the bus driver and this was a sure sign that, “I’m in”. I boarded the bus, breathed easy, chanted easy and made my way to 1626 Pie IX Boulevard eventually there to gain the good association of monk fellowship and devotional laypersons. It was the Sunday feast and the spirit was high. It was worth all the trouble.
4 kms.