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.
