long cab ride home

I find it both ironic and typical that after an evening out drinking and schmoozing at bars, the most enlightening conversation I had was with the cab driver on the way home. A youngish man who moved here from Egypt to attend college twenty years ago, he drives a cab when he isn't working...as a mechanical engineer consultant. He brought his sick mother to the United States and has devoted his life to her. "She worked three jobs to support my brother and me", he said. "She was a home economics teacher, a tailor, and she trained young women how to sew. I remember waking up at 3 a.m. and she would have the dining room table full of buttons and would be sewing small detail onto cloth. I brought her here because it is my turn to take care of her".

Later (it is a long drive) , we talked about how so many have so much and even more have so little. He chuckled and said, "you know, sometimes I felt more free in Egypt, but some parts aren't that different. Chicago has snow; Egypt has sand. It is all a game." When I commented that we would probably find very few American-born mechanical engineers moonlighting as cab drivers, he chuckled again and said, "eh - perhaps they are lazy? hahaha". Yes, sir, indeed. We are most definitely lazy.