Hello, Invisible Butterfly! Here's my personal take on the "AS IS Bus," recognizing others have their own:

Over the course of the Confessions of Little Turtle threads the image of a bus presented itself as a useful abstraction of people traveling together. Later, posters here found the "AS IS" idea comforting. That is, accepting ourselves as is, even if common standards regard us defective, is a healthy state of mind.

This does not mean we are happy with how we and the world are. It does not mean we have attained a sense of wholeness or self-acceptance. But we, in our various ways, are trying to affirm our as-is selves now, even while pressing on to better hoped-for states.