More Sky Lines

Standing at the bus stop, I often look up to see the trails of aeroplanes. (As I have previously mentioned.) These not unattractive features are, unfortunately trails of polution. From below, they look clean; white and bright wisps like any other cloud. What is noticable when travelling in an aeroplane is how dark they appear from above.

On Travelling to Work - 2

Driving to work takes effort: concentration on the road and arriving safely. When one arrives at work this level of effort and concentration continues into the work of the day. At the end of the day, that effort and concentration continues as one drives home again. From leaving home to returning home again, one is expending effort and concentrating. The working day is extended as a result by the work that it takes to get to and from work.

Going to work by train or bus, if undertaken in the right frame of mind (and in the right circumstances: on trains and buses that are not overcrowded or uncomfortable) can (or perhaps should) be an extension of the leisure time one has at home.

On Travelling to Work - 1

There are two ways to get to work: by private transport or by public transport. Private transport usually takes the form of travelling by car; public transport, the bus or the train. Some, of course, choose different forms of cycling. If one can't afford a vehicle, one has little choice than to go by public transport. Those who can afford a car often buy one and drive themselves to work.

However, if one becomes very wealthy one may decide to hire a chauffeur so that one no longer has to drive oneself. Here I think that there is a sense of coming full-circle here. Doesn't a bus or train driver chauffeur those who travel by public transport? So, don't knock public transport; it's much the same, to my mind, as being chauffeur driven.

Journeys are the midwives of thought

'Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do. The task can be as paralysing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand. Thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks, are charged with listening to music or following a line of trees. The music or the view distracts for a time that nervous, censorious, practical part of the mind which is inclined to shut down when it notices something difficult emerging in consciousness and which runs scared of memories, longings, introspective or original ideas and prefers instead the administrative and the impersonal.
Of all modes of transport, the train is perhaps the best aid to thought: the views have none of the potential monotony of those on a ship or plane, they move fast enough for us not to get exasperated but slowly enough to allow us to identify objects.'

This is a much cited excerpt from Alain de Botton's 'The Art of Travel'. However, he seems to completely miss the place and importance of buses in doing everything described above in a more leisurely and relaxed fashion.

Bus Man - 2

I am the man on the Clapham Omnibus.
Today, on the bus, I am …
    A poet.
Tomorrow, on the bus, I shall be …
    A hermit.
In the company of others,
I always travel alone.

 

(See: Bus Man.)

Bus Man

Who is the man on the Clapham Omnibus?
Who is the man on any bus?
Is he a poet?
Or, is he a hermit among men,
Travelling alone?