Bus Stops, Umbrellas and Journeys of Love

“Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say

Please share my umbrella

Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows

Under my umbrella.”

~Bus Stop (1966), The Hollies.

Describing your falling in love in twenty-three words—I like it! The journey of love finds most of us one way or the other, in a myriad of colourful forms. As the song goes, that umbrella leads us all to vows. And how love morphs from there!

In the true didactic dance of love we’re scooped up on the journey of not just love, but life. [I keep wanting to finish my sentences with exclamation marks!] Our romance gently meanders, innocently toward things so serious and life-rending; and we never quite see it.

The start of a long-term relationship, and certainly marriage, needs its break. Who’d engage in the “workload” otherwise?

When we’ve distilled our relationships down to—for women—men fixing things around the home and procreation—and for men—women providing sex and looking after them when they’re sick, we’ve got it awfully wrong... the respective people who hold those views. Yet that’s the temptation especially in the midst of what at times can be continual conflict.

Why do we forget the beautiful times when we shared the umbrella at the bus stop?

For every couple, it seems, there is a golden opportunity to retain some ‘oral tradition’ in the form of their unique history—when others looked on as if they were insane at that proverbial bus stop. These are the times when two minds merged and two hearts became one. These are divine moments worthy of cherishing.

Our journeys of love are enriched through the course of oral tradition—recalling those tender and funny and deep moments that meant (and still mean) so much. There will always come a time when we’ll need them.

Practice your oral tradition now. Recall and savour it... your ‘umbrella moments.’

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.