{"id":5312,"date":"2026-02-19T09:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/?p=5312"},"modified":"2026-02-19T09:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:20:32","slug":"on-the-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/?p=5312","title":{"rendered":"On the Bus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"347\" height=\"260\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/P1020110.jpg?resize=347%2C260\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1021\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Readers of this blog know that my topic is usually language. But today I\u2019m putting words to one side and focusing instead on actions. Specifically, what I witnessed on a Manhattan bus yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I was staring out a window, oblivious to my surroundings, when I slowly became aware of a little stir. The man on my left was rooting around in his grocery bag. He pulled out a roll of paper towels, peeled back the cellophane, tore off one sheet, and then another. He passed both towels to the woman next to him, who in turn passed them to someone sitting beside her, who leaned across the aisle and gave them to a mom who had used up a hefty supply of tissues on her child\u2019s very drippy nose. The mom smiled her thanks and said, \u201cThis is the America I want to live in.\u201d We bus riders chorused our agreement. Someone added, \u201cThat\u2019s why I live in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I don\u2019t think New Yorkers have a monopoly on kindness, but I do believe we seldom get enough credit for the amount of kindness this city calls forth from its residents every single day. Yes, we\u2019re impatient. Yes, we can seem \u2013 and be! \u2013 rude. But for people from such varied backgrounds, whose experiences and beliefs may fall as far apart as Earth and Jupiter, we manage pretty well. And often, like today, New Yorkers step up in surprising ways. My busmates understood how annoying a trail of mucus can be, both to the dripper and the dripped on. Perhaps they also grasped that the dripper\/drippee toggle can flip in the blink of an eye (or the ah-choo of a nose).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The world feels like a cruel, hard place right now. I\u2019m hoping paper-towel man thrives and inspires others with his kindness. He certainly inspired me! I\u2019m not planning to carry around a roll of towels, but I have resolved to pay more attention and to help whenever I can. If enough of us resolve to do so, perhaps we can collectively toggle from despair to hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Readers of this blog know that my topic is usually language. But today I\u2019m putting words to one side and focusing instead on actions. Specifically, what I witnessed on a Manhattan bus yesterday. I was staring out a window, oblivious to my surroundings, when I slowly became aware of a little stir. The man on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[787,227,786,785],"class_list":["post-5312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trending-words","tag-anecdotes-about-ny","tag-bus","tag-kindness","tag-new-york-city"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4YRMV-1nG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5312"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5316,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312\/revisions\/5316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarianinthecity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}