In Reply to: Was this for entertainment value? posted by Traveler on September 25, 2003 at 01:59:19:
........... continuing my story ...........
Well I started telling my crazy 500 yard taxi ride story to everyone I met for the next few weeks. Somehow it made me feel a sense that something special happened but I didn't know what. I felt special that it had happened to me, and it put a smile on my face. I was grinning from cheek to cheek and people were asking me why, and I'd tell them.
So here I go, I get another taxi again, this time for a long ride, and I start telling the driver my crazy story. The driver listens with amazement until I give him my punchline, "I believe special things like that happen for a reason, that we are magnets bringing together special events in the universe. Some higher power did this, but I guess there wasn't any profound message in this other than it happened for entertainment purposes."
"Nope, it didn't happen for entertainment purposes. I'll tell you why it happened! It happened so you'd share that with me, and I'd end up telling you my story!"
He looked at me, both seriously and with a twinkle in his eye, and began to tell me what had happened to him the year before.
Apparently, this driver, an immigrant, had broken some traffic rules, and was piling up quite a few demerit points. He was informed that his license would be suspended.
So he ended up writing a whole stack of letters to the authorities, to the man in charge of handling his case, trying to reverse the decision, explaining that he had a wife and newborn child to feed, and that he really needed his job as he didn't have any other marketable skills.
All his letters were ignored, and it came down to the last day on the job. That night, 6 hours before his suspension would kick in, he picked up a well dressed man who looked a bit depressed, who asked to be driven to some local bar.
The man asked him to keep the meter running, park the taxi, and to follow him into the bar. "You drink tea or coffee, I'll have beer. Whataver you do, stay with me and don't leave me, because I'm suicidal, and I really could use your company."
The taxi driver obliged, and proceeded to bar hop with his client, listening to him as he poured out all his troubles on him. He had been having quite a few problems with his wife, and she was about to leave him.
At the end of the evening, the man asked to be dropped home, and settled his enormous bill. Drunk and already hiccuping, the man started getting sentimental.
"We have so much in common. Even though I met you a few hours ago, you're the best friend I ever had. Nobody ever listened to me and showed me so much understanding. If it wasn't for you I might have killed myself tonight. Listen, here's my card. If there's anything you need, please let me know."
The driver looked at the card and nearly died! His client was the very man he had been writing to all these months, trying to appeal the decision. He told the man who he was, and that he had been writing to him.
"Why did you ignore my letters!? I need you to help me reverse this decision! My family needs me to keep this job. You see that I'm a good driver, and I know my job. Please!"
The man was surprised, but far too drunk to appear to understand anything, and promised to take care of the matter the next morning. First he said, he had to go home and throw up.
So the driver called him the next morning, and there was no reply, and left some messages on his voice mail. "He must be hungover", he thought. He tried calling again and again for days, but no reply. At this point, he had stopped worrying about the man, if something had happened to him, decided he was just avoiding his calls, and gave up.
That week, the driver took some time off with his wife and newborn child, time he would not otherwise have taken if he had been able to work.
Then, he received a letter in the mail that his license was no longer revoked!
When he called again and finally got ahold of the man on the phone, he explained, "I took some time off to fix things with my wife. She says I ignore her too much, and I don't answer her about important things, just like the way I ignored your letters. Now things are much better with us, I think it's going to work out. I've taken care of everything for you. I've ripped up all the complaints and all your appeals. As far as I'm concerned, none of this ever happened."
"So that," explained the driver, "was the reason you had your story happen, so I could tell you mine! The idea is you're supposed to pass these stories along. They happened to you because you could be trusted to tell them."