We live on the same planet, but more often than not, in different worlds.
I picked up a young lady on her way to her job as a restaurant worker. After I told her about my book and the many stories I've recorded from my riders, she offered her own.
"I'm doing okay now, but I've had a tough life. I'm not complaining, it's just not been easy. My family was totally dysfunctional, so I started life on my own earlier than most kids." she said.
"I got around by hopping trains and getting in all kinds of trouble. I was homeless for a while, and spent a lot of time on friends' couches. I've always had some singing talent, so I sometimes got gigs singing in dive bars."
"I remember spending a week on the streets with a cardboard sign. I raised enough money to move on to a city where I could make enough money waitressing and singing to stay off the streets."
At times during her story, I felt as if those days were a long time ago. Once we reached the restaurant, she let me know she's getting gigs regularly now, along with her restaurant work. Suddenly, I realized she was not very far removed from the tough life, just more confident.
Ding! An airport call. I picked up Matteo. He had a great Italian accent to go along with his very adventurous lifestyle. Matteo is one of those guys with a checklist of challenges. He loves skiing, but is hooked on mountain climbing and ice climbing.
He tells me, "I've traveled throughout the world to challenge myself on some of the famous mountains. My seventy-year-old father goes with me sometimes on the ice climbing trips."
"He's slowing down a little, but he's the one who challenged me on my first ice climb. We were to descend a frozen waterfall. The scary part was that you couldn't see over the edge, so the first part of the descent was blind."
"I remember digging my pickaxe into the ice and feeling ice water spraying in my face. We found out later that the falls hadn't frozen enough to allow us to ascend the same way we came down."
(I took a moment to reflect on the fact that I will soon be seventy. At no point in my life have I ever entertained the idea of ice climbing down a frozen waterfall. A sheltered life indeed!)
I know I've mentioned before that I've had folks from at least sixty-nine countries in my car. Make that seventy now.
Visil, a young student from Cambodia, sat in the back seat of my car. His dad had come to America sometime after the Vietnam War. After ten years in the United States, he became a citizen. He learned how to buy and sell real estate in the U.S. but returned to Cambodia.
Visil's brother lived in Hawaii for a while and learned to farm.
"My brother learned to farm much differently than the traditional methods in Cambodia. He tried to introduce his newly acquired talents, but the other farmers ridiculed him at first. That was, until my brother's success produced much better results."
"Now, he's very successful, and his farm entertains tourists from all over Cambodia. One of their favorite tour memories includes a video showing the visitors receiving cow's milk squired directly into their mouths."
Finally, I had the pleasure of picking up a ninety-three-year-old lady from her optometrist appointment. I believe her picture should be in the dictionary as the definition of 'spry'. Somehow, we began talking about our faith.
Anna said, "I was engaged to be married to a wonderful Catholic man in Pennsylvania when I was very young. I'm a Protestant, and I had talked to a minister about the religious differences. He said everything would be just fine."
"One day, we were walking together, and a rosary fell out of his pocket. I could tell that my fiancée was as dedicated to his faith as I was to mine. After lengthy discussions, we decided not to marry."
"I eventually married another gentleman. We never had any children of our own, but we helped raise a neighbor's three-year-old. I was a nanny to several children over the years."
"My husband passed away a few years ago. We were married for more than sixty years. We had an agreement that anytime we disagreed, we would first discuss whether it was just a misunderstanding. By assuming the other person wasn't intentionally being bad, we avoided a lot of problems we saw our friends and family go through."
We reached her home. She recently released two books, one of which was a workbook for the other. Her books are faith-oriented, and she's published four of them. She invited me to see them in her garage.
"This will probably be my last book," she said, "I'm ninety-three, you know."
I'm in awe.
Four people on this planet. Four people living in different worlds.
God Bless,
Tommy
