Notice boards behind the driver’s compartment on Sydney busses have been updated in the last week with signs baring the slogan:
If you see something,
say something
On Saturday afternoon, staring at the sign and having read the news about a man in London being shot point blank because he had wires appearing from his coat I daydreamed (or.. daymared.. kinda like nightmared but in the day? hm) about a kid hopping on a bus with his iPod headphone leads spilling from his pocket and someone clobbering him in the head under false assumptions. When I stick my hand in my pocket to click through to the next song on my iPod shuffle I’ve started wondering if people are worrying that I’m trying to hit a button to detonate something.
Hate this stupidity.
>> Hate this stupidity.
Absolutely! And I hate the way it intrudes on one’s thoughts, uninvited. I was sat opposite an Asian bloke on the tube last Monday, he had a big sports bag on his lap, I couldn’t help speculating. He dipped his hands into the bag, my mind started racing, for every thought I put out of my head, more kept flooding in. Then he pulled a newspaper out of his bag and I thought “phew”, but still couldn’t help wondering what else he had in there.
I don’t like thinking like this.
The tube journey to work (or anywhere else for that matter) has never been fun. It’s less so. I’ve stopped reading newspapers. I just listen to my music now. Life does go on. Those thoughts though, are hard to aviod. I don’t want to think like that. Sometimes – it can’t be helped.
maybe it’s time for everyone to have to go nude, see-through backpacks, all walls made of clear plastic, transparent seating in tubes and busses, everything in the world visible to everyone else. hmm.. okay, maybe not.. we’d all catch a chill and they’d just invent camouflaging bombs.