How did I get stuck with this?

When I was 19 years old I was living in a radical commune in Detroit. There were 14 of us living in this decaying mansion. Most of us worked in the car factories. Every week we put twenty dollars in a coffee can. That covered our rent and groceries for the week. Every once in a while it was your turn to make a grocery run. I was unemployed and in no great hurry to find work.

One day one of the women from the house walked in the kitchen and said, "Put on a clean shirt. We're going down to city hall. I'm going to apply for a job as a garbage man If they won't take my application I'll sue the city. You need to get off your ass and find a job".

A couple of month later I was 20 years old driving a city bus in Detroit.

I was a new hire so I worked the worst shifts. Midnights on the weekend, that sort of thing. My bosses were old school maniacs. They told us to take manly action when there was trouble on the bus. "Don't be afraid to use your fists".

I was a 20 year old white boy but I wasn't completely stupid. I've always been a worker and I guess it started back then. I tried to figure out what I'd have to do to keep the job. I couldn't fight everyone who got on the bus but I'd be fired if I didn't follow most of the rules.

One night a girl got on my bus. It was around 2AM and she was wearing a party dress and carrying a little purse. It was too cold out to be without a jacket and I dimly understood that she'd been on a date, fallen out with her date and been kicked out of his car.

She tried to give me an old transfer that she'd found on the ground. I told her it was no good. She looked around to see if any of the men on the bus would help her. There were quite a few of them and none of them stepped up. She turned around and walked off the bus.

A mile down the road, I realized, I'd been a COMPLETE SHIT. I'd left a young woman stranded on a dark cold street alone in the middle of the night. I was a fucking rat and it was too late to do anything about it.

I never wanted to do something like that again. I only worked for the Detroit DOT for a year but I kept driving off and on for the next 40 years. I taught myself how to pay attention to people's problems. I stopped worrying what my bosses would do to me. Fuck them. If they didn't want me out there making decisions they shouldn't have put me out there by myself.

I got to where I was really good at dealing with hopelessly fucked up people and putting babies to sleep and helping people figure out that I didn't give a shit about their money. It was fated that I end up getting rid of respectable commuters and honest workaday folks and devote myself to driving fucked up people full time. Who else could do it better than me?

I'd found an art form and a spiritual calling.