Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Park and Ride

The man has a job to go to, but he can't get out of his car. Its not that he is trapped in the car or anything of the sort. What he cannot do at present is will himself out of the car. 

You see, like most people, the man hates his job. To him it is and has always been a way to eat and nothing more. He derives no pleasure or passion, and the people are barely tolerable at best. On most days he is quite capable of ignoring all these things, capable of grinning and bearing it (although without the grinning.) But today, for some reason, was exceptionally difficult. 

Nothing was different. He did not have a big meeting that day, or any trouble with any of his coworkers. It was no specific event that he dreaded, other than the act of working. He couldn't even call it work. He slowly watched the clock tick forward each day as he put in only the smallest bit of effort allowable to accomplish tasks he neither cared nor looked forward to. He did just enough to get by, and just enough was good enough when everyone felt like he did. 

But he couldn't do it. He couldn't go on pretending that this was how life was meant to be lived. He knew, in brief moments of lucidity, that something was off. He suspected, in the corners of his mind, that this was a dumb way to live. Going somewhere you don't give a shit about to do something you don't like to do, so you can not starve and pay for whatever poison you need to help it all go down smoothly. And this was one of those moments, and he couldn't get out of the car. 

He watched as people walked (or ran) towards the buses. He watched as the buses pulled away, looking as if they themselves had a job they didn't like. He watched as the smoke from their exhaust blended into the atmosphere,  pretending to be harmless. His bus was long gone, and he was still in the car. He felt the weight of it all on his shoulders, every pound. It crushed his spirit, and stabbed at his mind. But like always, he got out of his car and walked towards the buses. 

"You're late" his boss told him. He explained to his boss that he had missed his bus, and his boss believed him and made no more of it. And then they got to work. 

7 comments:

  1. Nice post. It just made me realize life once more. I can honestly say that I overlook one of life's vital feature. Nothing that had once lived is perfect. For me I think that the best way to live life is to strive for something that you've always been interested in. The best pleasure is the pleasure of feeling ones work finally paying off. So I say do it as if it was your last day, everyday.

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  2. Oh man.. that's kind of eerie. I went through the same thing.

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  3. I know that feeling everytime i had to wake up for my last job i would question why im wasting my time with such a boring job when i could go out and do something productive and find a job i like.

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  4. I almost wish he didn't go to work, just like I always imagine doing. :D

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