Social norms gone bad on public transportation

(Comic from: toothpastefordinner.com)

Every day I meet weird people through the wonder that is public transportation.

sometimes i would give anything to hear someone's story. sometimes i would give a dollar. sometimes I would give anything to make someone shut up.

Like the crazy lady from south dakota who wore sweats smelling of syringes and hospital bedcloth, she asked me what month it was because she had been in the hospital forever-- apparently too busy having seizures to wash herself. She sat next to me and asked me if I knew someone with an extra mobile home she could "borrow"..... I felt a shiver of sympathy run through my body, and I felt a wave of coldness just thinking of a social system that pushes its members to the fringes of despair-- but the pain of her smell overrode both and I silently thanked god when she pulled the bus stop cord.

Then there is the obesely overweight man whose backpack looks like a mini chimp the way it is strapped to his abnormally giant shoulders. Hanging from his backpack is always a large pink keychain that says "crazy women walkers". Maybe he's crazy but he's not a woman and I'm pretty sure he's not much of a walker/exerciser. I see him everyday and must painfully refrain from snipping the keychain off his back.

There is also cowboy hat dude. I feel sorry for anyone who's wardrobe centers around an article of clothing that has been out of fashion for over 100 years. In an age of instant technology. . .how could he have not gotten the message?