doubleplusungood

So I'm on the bus this morning. I get on at the first stop on the route and often the bus is full before it even leaves the circle and today, with the snowfall and cold temperatures, was no exception. The commute can be long, especially on days like this; the traffic was expected to be insane. We had some wind and snow yesterday which, together, make for a crazy and dangerous combination.

This woman sits down in front of me and like everyone else, she started digging around in her bags to settle in for long commute into the downtown core. She pulled out her iPod. Ehm, the skinny one...? Ehm, I'm not all that familiar with each of their names, I just know Apple™ has marketed about a ba-billion of them. It was in a pretty lime-green leather case (which is what I actually noticed) and she starts pushing buttons. I can see the frustration building on her face as the bus pulls away from the curb. She is a very pretty woman. Petite with shorter medium brown hair and she smiles a lot; she reminds me of a pixie faerie. She, however, was not smiling this morning.

She keeps pushing buttons.

The ear buds are not even in her ears.

She pushes more buttons.

Still no motion to actually *listen* to anything.

She sighs heavily and then turns to me with a worried look on her face. "Excuse me. Do you know how to work these things?"

I laughed, "No, I'm sorry, I am not familiar with the iPod stuff but it should be pretty basic. I'd look, but I don't want to accidentally break it." (I use an iAudio)

She smiles and says "That's alright, I'll read the manual when I get home tonight." and she pulls out a copy of George Orwell's "1984". I noticed her reading this last week. Good choice.

I sit back in my seat and get ready to take my usual dozy nap into work.

A very big and burly man in business attire sitting next to me, his huge hands holding a book atop his attaché case, announces with a very loud voice, "You're better off with that, anyway." as he points to her book.

The woman looks at him a little perplexed and says, "Pardon me?"

He says again, "You're better off reading your book anyway. It's a lot better for you."

I sat there a little dumbfounded.

Now, I understand that reading is great for the soul, it encourages thought and creative thinking. Or it can really educate and provide a wealth of information. Trust me, I'm all about Information Porn. Not to mention that I've done my fair share of reading throughout my thirty-four years. I've studied history and literature in University and have read a plethora of classics and "greats". But to say that books are "better" than music as if you've just discovered oxygen is a little pretentious. Music can be just as fulfilling as a great novel. Well-composed music, whatever genre it may be, can tell stories just as well as a great piece of literature. It can educate and inform. It can breathe new life into old tales. It just happens to be another medium for it.

I found his comment to be self-righteous and insulting. Music, like everything else, has a different meaning to everyone. And although I sat there a bit offended by his base comment I had to tell myself... "Consider the source..."

I hope he enjoyed his Dean Koontz novel.