Trust

On the bus today I saw the most interesting thing. A man with his young son boarded the very crowded bus and almost immediately the elderly man next to me reached out from his seat to grab the child. Th elder pulled him past the people in the way and sat him in his lap.

It took me a moment to understand what had just occurred because, for me, it was out of the norm. The elder noticed the boy, who would've had to stand, and gave him a seat in his lap and he stayed there as the father went to the back of the bus to pay the fare. He did not know the child, or the father, but just did what was best for the boy.

The reactions of the man and his son were far from the norm for me as well. The father did not question the elder. The boy did not look to his father for reassurance. All three accepted the event as just a part of everyday life and it completely blew my mind. In the States the whole thing would have happened differently.

First, the father would have flipped if a strange man grabbed at his child, the boy probably would have thrown a fit and onlookers would have demonized the elderly man who had nothing but good intentions. It just shows the difference in culture and how we lack the trust that they have here.

Just my observation.