There's something about a bus ride late at night, not the one taking you uptown or downtown, but the one taking you across the country, the one taking you from your job in D. C. back to the hills of Tennessee, or to your father who lies dying in a hospital in Des Moines. There are only a few dim interior lights and even fewer passengers, but the one you're supposed to meet is in the back of the bus, waiting for you to sit down ...
"Secret of Life"
Once during the war
on a bus going to Portsmouth
a navy yard worker
told me the secret of life.
The secret of life, he said,
can never be passed down
one generation to the other.
The secret of life, he said,
is hunger. It makes an open hand.
The secret of life is money.
But only the small coins.
The secret of life, he said,
is love. You become what you lose.
The secret of life, he said,
is water. The world will end
in flood.
The secret of life, he said,
is circumstance.
If you catch the right bus
at the right time
you will sit next
to the secret teller
who will whisper it
in your ear.
~ Diana Der-Hovanessian
Preferring hitchhiking on the open road as a young lad I only took a cross country bus once. I sat next to a woman from San Diego who had just gotten out of a bad relationship. She was beautiful and open. It was if I fell in love with her in the span of 24 hours. As I got off the bus in L.A. to meet a friend she asked me to visit her in San Diego. I never did but have always wondered what would have happened.
ReplyDeleteThis poem (my first exposure to it) immediately tugged at my emotions. Had this happened to me?
If the goosebumps I felt at reading that are any indication, and I believe they are, I would say yes. :)
DeleteAnd interesting poem, Teresa, though I've never heard of this poet. I always like to be introduced to a new writer. Also, as you might have guessed, I've known what those buses were like. As a young soldier, I once took a night bus home from Fort Sill, OK to Mississippi. Once for the experience, but never again.
ReplyDeleteIt's another world in many ways. I think the time period of which the poet speaks was a better time for bus riding....
DeleteI loved this poem... In City Slickers, Jack Palance's character said something like this: The secret to life is one thing. It's up to you to figure it out. (Can't remember exact wording) anyway, this poem grabs me...
ReplyDeleteJack Palance' character in City Slickers had some great insight into life. Loved that movie.
DeleteTeresa, this post triggered a few memories for me. I love riding a late night bus. Sit down and the universe opens. It is an amazing thing and the total opposite of getting into an elevator with people. Great poem and so beautfully framed by you.
ReplyDeleteIt's all a matter of attitude and a willingness to see what the universe has to show us. I can well imagine it revealed some pretty wonderful things to you, and even more so to your seatmates....
DeleteThank you. I'm so glad you enjoyed this post.
Been thinking about your elevator thought and it's so true. The strange, unwritten rule of silence in elevators....
DeleteTeresa -- Today, long bus rides are horrible. Perhaps when this poem was written it was safer. I took one from MI to GA and the riders were scary. Never again. My son took one a couple years ago and they had to stop the bus because cockroaches were crawling out of someones suitcase. I would never recommend a cross-country bus ride to anyone. Now trains I can understand meeting up with a secret teller. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteWell, the time period the poet alludes to was a different thing altogether, and it was in that framework I built this post. I guess I'm still a romantic.
DeleteTrains are another story....
I've ridden on the big dog a few times, long ago. I wonder of any of that romance is still there?
ReplyDeleteIt may well be. It's what we bring to the situation that allows for an interesting encounter. I want to think it's possible still, that people aren't as frightening as we are led to believe.
DeleteThe images of riding in a bus alone at night brought conflicting emotions to my mind. It's the wistful contentment of being safe in an insulated little world vs. the vulnerability of being alone and confined in the dark. There are never any pure emotions that can't be tainted by doubts and fears.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very insightful comment, Janice. Thank you for it. Your last sentence is so true.
DeleteIt's about saying yes, I think, to possibilities. I had one of those earlier this week when I went to a new place to get a haircut and then decided to have my hair colored. As the stylist and I sat waiting for the color to process, we had the most amazing conversation. I would have missed that if I'd decided to leave my hair color alone.
ReplyDeleteI once took a train from Eugene, Oregon to Los Angeles. I was newly separated and completely raw. I sat next to a lovely man and we talked for the entire trip - all night long. When I got off in Los Angeles he kissed me goodbye. I never saw him again, but I never forgot, either.
Isn't it fun when we find we encounter these opportunities? I just love this.
DeleteYour train experience gave me shivers, good shivers. Wow. Very lovely. Very.
Thanks. I hadn't thought of it in ages until I read your post.
DeleteLovely post as always!
ReplyDeleteI would love to sit next to the secret teller. I wonder how often we do, without realizing it?
Everyone has the potential to be one. That's where that listening comes in. Then discernment. :)
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