First of all, happy father’s day!
From time to time I look up some of the statistics of the blog. What would you guess is the number one word searched upon that leads people to the website? Giving? $10? Reed Sandridge? Nope, the number one word for weeks now is “Mohawk!” I have no idea why. I went to Google and typed in Mohawk and the Year of Giving doesn’t come up. I did mention mohawks on Day 13 when I was sharing that Davie from Day 5 offered to give me a haircut to thank me for helping him out…that was one style that he said he was good at.
Anyway, today’s story is slightly different from most. I grabbed a cab over to the Courthouse area of Arlington. I thought I might give the cab driver my $10. His name was Ismael. A 54-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, he has lived in Virginia for the last 21 years.
He tells me that he likes driving a cab because “I get to meet nice people like you.” Despite his kindness, people are not always nice to him. “It can be risky and even dangerous.” Although nothing really bad has happened to Ismael, he says that some people have threatened him and occasionally customers quickly jump out of his cab without paying. “Ninety percent of the people are good decent people though.”
I asked Ismael if he would accept my $10, but he said that he couldn’t. I asked him to humor me though and tell me what he would do if he found $10 or somebody randomly gave him $10. “I would pass it along. If I don’t earn the money then I don’t think I should keep it,” he said.
I really wanted to give Ismael my $10 and figured that he couldn’t stop me from giving him the money. We arrived at my destination and the meter read $10. I would have normally given him $12, but decided to give him $22 and include my $10. I thanked him, wished him good luck, and handed over the money and my Year of Giving card. Then I quickly jumped out of the cab probably like those individuals he had told me about and entered the restaurant where I was meeting some friends for dinner.
Year of Giving 