The other day, I entered a cab per habit, per routine. Halfway through the ride and our conversation, the driver turned around and gave me his card. He said he has a fleet of taxis, and then he said he has drivers from all religions. And for a second, I did not know what he meant, for even our seeing the world a certain way does not change it in any way; all it does is make it easier for you to live your life. The fact that I do not watch the world through a lens of faith has little to say about how the world functions, and so when this morbid realisation hit me, and I put myself in his heavy shoes, I took the card and told him he wouldn’t have to worry about that with me for I have no religion, that I will remember him, and when I need a trip between cities, I will be sure to give him a call. He said he was glad for it but that it was not a problem and that adjustments are part and parcel of all business.
For the life of me, I cannot wipe the moment his words dove into my ears, how it occurred to me what he meant and his nonchalance about it, how terrifyingly hard some lives are in comparison to others!
Some things get plastered over your mind and change how it is that you look at the world, and so, with that moment in mind, I look at the world with a disgust akin to how you look at an old loaf of bread which is past its date of expiry but has no visible mould on it. I reject the world just how I do the bread. You cannot take a chance with these things—they may be rotten inside. While I am often not sure of the bread, I am of the world. It was rotten long before I was born and will be rotten long after I am gone.
In the end, I learned, yet again, that it is the world I love, and it is the world I despise. It is people who make me want to live, and it is people who scare me. All the things I adore are all the things I detest. All of it is so absurd you might think it is crazy to live. But then, to live is to rebel against it the craziness. To live is to find a way. Adjustments, as I have learned, are part and parcel of all business, and this may be the most important business of all.