Do we care enough?

Sitting on the bus on the way to work gives you plenty of time to think, I am discovering. As I sat there this morning listening to Deftones on my MP3 player, I asked myself a question.

How much do I care about the people around me?

I am an avid people watcher. I find it fascinating sitting in a place where I am able to see people and watch what they are doing. This could sound quite strange, and possibly a little bit disturbing - but it's not. It's not staring. It is watching what they are doing for the brief and fleeting moment they happen to be in my line of sight.

And as I scanned the bus this morning and thought, "I'm glad I'm not sitting to crazy old lady who seems to be talking to anyone who's listening," I thought to myself, in response to that thought, "that's a pretty bad attitude!"

How much do we care about our fellow human beings? Are we so self absorbed that we don't care about the people we don't know? Shouldn't we have more time for those we don't know?

Ideally, we should be able to answer in a positive way to each of those questions, but if I was honest - I don't think I can. It's a shame really. However, after this thought process shot through my brain, I continued to think. I scanned the bus again and I was genuinely wondering what the story was of the people around me. How fascinating it would have been to be able to talk to each of those people and here what they were doing and where they had come from.

Do I care enough? Probably not, but I think this little episode has at least made me aware of this and started me thinking about it.