Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Urban Daze

A hazy summer marked by intemperate rain suddenly interrupted by two glorious days: omens of our time.  A person takes refuge however he can. The Lyft driver Augustine operates by strict schedule out of his office/home in Rockville where he 'deals in commodities,'  he tells me while patiently steering me homeward to Capitol Hill through early evening DC traffic. (Tourists clogging the crosswalks, often against the light.) That is, he charts and plays the charts with fossil fuels all over the world. Venezuela has heavy, Nigerian has light. Who wants what and why. A great game that leaves him hungry for company. So he starts his shift looking for some conversation - the human touch beyond the vagaries of a  hyper stock market. He is professorial, explaining its ups and downs.  He has no stated position on climate change and their detractors, saying only "People want their AC."
Just like driver William, owner-operator with his wife of a chain of daycare centers in suburban Maryland. He charts his course on the road between hours he needs to check on the centers, but generally prefers shifts of four hours each beginning at 4 a.m., then a break at noon until 4 p.m. He always is calculating the times and the traffic. "Yeah, I'm an entrepreneur."
Strangers traveling everywhere are hungry for  company. At the MSP airport - American crossroads east/west and north/south - a man approaches a woman sitting alone with her iPhone, obviously engaged while waiting for her flight. He asks if he can  'be of help.' He thinks he sees an oxygen tank in her carryon by her side, he explains, when the woman politely declines his offer. He thinks he has seen something plastic indicating a vulnerable soul. It's possible, too, that it is his gimmick for getting aboard the plane early, as her 'support'.  His next question is an odd one: "You ever been married?" He ignores her answer and launches into the saga of his own misfortune, or maybe his lucky break, that recently his live-in told him she wasn't staying round. He has been traveling for 15 hours, he says (there is some compensatory alcohol on his breath), and has tried getting 'into real conversation with someone' but has not been successful. He  even played the airport piano by way of connecting.