I got a kick…

I frequently witness raw human interactions and behavior. As I spend nearly two hours a day on public transit in Chicago, I have ample opportunity to observe. Tonight, though, I felt as though I had the wind knocked out of me. When I walked from the el station to the waiting bus, a man hurriedly passed me. He got on the bus just in front of me and about four seats back from the front, he deliberately kicked the leg of a young man who, while reading, had had his knee up on the adjoining seat. The bus was nowhere near filled—a number of seats were available. The young man, startled, immediately sat straight in his seat, thus freeing the adjoining seat. Only, the older man took the seat one away from that—the young man needn’t have moved at all. And no one else took the seat between them. Anyone not looking directly at them missed the event, it happened so fast. I looked at the kicker. Middle-management-type, well groomed and dressed, etc. As he sat down he pulled out a book and settled in to read. The young man, a college student as I concluded from the UIC Library stamp on his book, was obviously rattled but didn’t take any other action. So many thoughts racing in my brain. First, I felt as though I had been kicked. Second, I couldn’t help but wonder if the older man would have done that had the other appeared to be a gangsta-rapper type (would he have thought he might possibly antagonize someone who might retaliate)? And just when did a swift kick replace “Excuse me, is this seat taken”? Especially among supposedly civilized people? Yechh.