On the Bus 73 ExpressChapter 7 -- GravyDr. Neire “Do you remember Major Tim Augustine?”Larry “Yeah. It seemed so real. Like Larry was gone. Completely replaced by Tim. I was him. Not me.”~~~I now think of my self, the me that I am, as connected, tied together, unified. A collective, not a solitary unity.The best metaphor I can use is music, really beautiful, well-played music.My roommate in college was a music major, and he used to play his CDs in our room. I was probably the most non-musical person he could have roomed with. I was an accounting major. I never played an instrument. Never sang in a chorus. I didn’t listen to music. I played video games.Anyway, he had one CD that I really liked. I asked him for its name. He said Dvorak’s String Quartet, called the “American” because it was written while the composer was in America on a visit. I liked it so much that I bought my own copy.For years, before our company built its new headquarters building, back when I still drove to work, I would play that CD in my car, the American String Quartet. I probably played it a couple hundred times.When I began thinking about the philosophical question, what is the self, I think of that one piece of music. I know there are four musicians, each playing their own instrument, but to me, they are one. Each hears the others. They exchange musical information. However, in so doing, they become connected, tied together, unified. A collective, not a solitary entity.I now think that’s what happened that day on the bus. The Major and Larry exchanged information. They became one, unified, connected, tied together.I have a special ability. Maybe ability is not the right word. Capacity? Sensitivity? Awareness? Connectedness? I use the word ability because I don’t know what to call it.Something draws me out of my cardboard box, unseals the shipping tape, allows me to become them.I mean become them. I am not watching them from a distance. No. Larry Connors evaporates. Gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Away.My self has been transferred to them. I am them. I am no longer the old me. I had been playing the violin, but now I am playing the cello.I didn’t know what to call the experience. So, I just tell myself that I have jumped from Larry into Major Tim. I jumped from one person’s self to the other’s.

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