I was in a great conversation with a London cabby. I found myself remembering the reasons I both like and dislike the City. Given the laddish conversation, I was sure I knew his background and attitude.
The normal question came up, “where are you from?” In context this is usually a less than subtle way of saying, “you are a brash insensitive American, aren’t you?”
I was not put off by the assumed put down, so played along. “Why are you asking?”
“One never knows by the externals. Take me for instance. I am not British in any way. My mother was Italian, my father from Malta, and I grew up in Gibraltar. I spent a large chunk of my life in South Florida. Then I ended up in London nine years ago.”
Nothing in my prejudiced view prepared me for this. As I struggled to reset my viewpoint, I asked the first question that came. “Given your background, how did you possibly pass the Knowledge?” (The Knowledge is a test given to all taxi drivers requiring a detailed knowledge of London. It usually takes between 2-4 years to pass.)
“The Knowledge is one of the toughest exams in the world. There is no way that anyone will be perfect. You spend years studying, preparing, and once you pass you feel fantastic for a minute. Then you realize that you are just a cab driver.”
London, like life, is confusing. Even those with the Knowledge occasionally get lost. With living, God, and important things, it is useful to know that one does not know. With a London cabby, I found wisdom. If one realizes that story telling has many names, preaching included, an old observation makes sense today. “Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.” (1 Corinthians 1.21)
Whatever our vocation and interest, we are just storytellers.
