We’ve all been helped by people who work at jobs they wouldn’t have chosen given another opportunity. These people I’m thinking about toil easily, efficiently, calmly, and often with a little smile at the corners of their mouth. It almost looks as if they have a secret lingering in their memory. I’d say it’s the secret of being happy. You never know where or when this kind of person will be there for you. It could be in a restaurant, post office, retail shop, hair salon, behind a counter, airport, at a construction site, driving a bus, a taxi. etc. One thing they have in common is that they do their work in an extraordinary way.
Do you remember the 80’s – the decade of the big attitude? That was an interesting time in that many aspects of the service business appeared to fall apart. Maybe we got through that period because of the people who didn’t buy into that way; they treated everyone with kindness, and simply did their job, usually with a smile.
One of those jobs that can be immensely trying is driving a taxi. When you get into one do you notice the driver? All day long he weaves in and out of heavy traffic, sometimes dealing with argumentative, anxious, crabby, sick, demanding passengers, picking up all kinds of people who barely notice him, not even with a simple hello from one human being to another. However that may be, these drivers oftentimes turn their heads, offer a smile, and once again face the traffic. Special. In the years that I’ve been taking NYC cabs, I’ve seen many drivers from many countries around the world sitting at the wheel of one. If you and the driver are in a chatting mood, often you’ll discover that the driver is well-educated and informative, and you leave the cab with a little more understanding of the country he’s from, and what it takes to live in another one.
Where in the world do they come from? How did they get that way? There are many stories. They come from different countries, and have an ability, a knowing, that enables them to do work they wouldn’t necessarily have chosen in an extraordinary way.
Here’s to those people.