Wednesday, July 6, 2022

TAXI DRIVERS


Taxi Drivers, Chicago, IL


Taxi drivers are like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates--you never know what you’re gonna get.  It’s two total strangers together for maybe 10 to 45 minutes.  Some are silent while others welcome conversation.  I’ve had numerous conversations with city taxi drivers about many subjects, but a few that I’ve had with immigrant drivers have been the most poignant. 

 

On a recent Thanksgiving visit to Chicago I encountered a young driver from Eastern Europe with a degree in engineering and a young man from India with a pharmaceutical degree from India.  The main reason they were now driving a taxi was because there were no opportunities in their homelands and they were paying the bills until an opportunity opened here.  On this 2022 Independence holiday, I was getting a ride from the city to O’Hare airport with a young man from Africa who had come to America alone with no skills, but a determination for the opportunity of a better life. 

 

We were discussing yesterday’s mass shooting at an Independence parade in the suburbs and the young man was incredulous that crime, lootings and shootings among young Americans are so prevalent here in America.  It’s been noted that every American in this country is richer than 95% of the rest of the world!  Many folks in America don’t see themselves as rich.  We live in unprecedented times of wealth and material possessions in this country.  If you live in this country, the majority see you as among the world’s rich, even though you do not, given your ostentatious surroundings.    

 

Malcolm Gladwell compared the suicide rates of citizens in countries such as Switzerland and Canada that declare themselves to be very happy against countries such as Greece and Portugal whose citizens declared that they are not very happy.  Ironically, the folks in the less happy countries had the lower suicide rates.  So, what’s the connection?  Psychologists attribute these human responses to a concept coined as “relative deprivation”.  As it turns out, how you feel about your “self-concept” matters very much in relation to those people immediately around you. 

The taxi driver noted that he grew up in a small African village where people lived a day-to-day existence on the bare necessities of life.  He considered he was being punished by his family because his job was to walk three miles to the nearest clean water well to carry a jug of water on his head multiple times a day.  He never had a toy and never had much time to play.  They only had electricity for a few hours each day.  He only had one meal a day.  Finally, as he came of age, he legally immigrated to America alone to seek a better life.

 

The young man passionately mentioned that everyone in this country has access to the basic needs that his family was frequently denied.  He never took another’s possessions or struck out at someone in his village.  He proclaimed that we need to help one another, not hurt one another.  We need God in our lives and family, especially in tough times.


In the brief time we interfaced with one another, I attempted to give them words of encouragement and share my story. We’re all vessels of grace that can be placed in a stranger’s path at a critical time in their life when they need hope.  I’ll never know how their story ends, but now it’s part of my story as well.  Many folks don’t always have the time or inclination to share their story, but occasionally we do have those chance encounters--such as a brief exchange with a migrant taxi driver in a distant city. And during these holiday times, we’re reminded that some people have unknowingly shown hospitality to angels.

 


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