Hearing the experiences of a cabdriver, learning something from other’s experiences, translated…
As I finished a series of courses in Wuhan, the guest and the locals were both happy; I flew back to Hangzhou, as I landed, I got into a cab. The driver was a young lad of about forty, very talkative, and so, we’d started up in conversations, exchanged the stories we have.
teh people with the stories to tell…not my photo.
I’d asked him which gender is harder to deal with in all of his customers? “Ladies, of course, and, the older they get, the more annoying they are………”, he’d started telling how someone tried to weasel out from paying the fares, and I’d described a story I’d heard from Taipei: a woman wanted to call a cab, and agreed that the driver was to take her from Taipei to Kaohsiung for what she needed to do; same day returns, the fare ran up to $9,000N.T.s (about \1,800). After a whole day of trials, he’d arrived back in Taipei, in the depth of the night, at an apartment building, the woman told him she’d needed to get money from upstairs, and, was never seen again. The young driver was so tired, and went home, and got grilled by his own wife, he’d lain on his bed for three whole days afterwards. I’d added, “He’d paid a $9,000N.T. tuition!” after the driver heard, he’d started laughing aloud.
“This is nothing, there was one man, about forty, one day, a fashionable looking woman flagged down his cab, and agreed on the amount of $17,500N.T.s. As he drove to Anhui, when he’d demanded that she pays, she’d spread out her arms, said that she didn’t have a single dime on her. He drove her to the local police station, she’d still refused to pay him. And the young driver couldn’t do anything about it, and can only feel that he was, graced with bad luck, drove, all the way, back to Hangzhou; and paid for his own gas and toll booth charges, and he was, in deep remorse.”
“This, was the highest amount of ‘tuition’ I’d ever heard that a cab driver had paid!”, he’d started laughing aloud again, as if he found “paying the tuition” as a very fresh way of saying it. And, as the subject of getting free rides, he’d gotten really passionate about it. “Several years ago, there were three young men who took my cab, it was, a very short passage, only \15. As he took them to the destinations, the three younger men said, ‘We NEVER paid cab fares, we’d done you the services, of taking your ride there!’, so, I’d parked the car by the side of the road, and, took a long iron wrench I had in my car, and, got out of the car, and, hit the man who led the others hard on his head, caused him to start bleeding hard. The second man took a wooden bat to me, I’d lifted up my left hand to block him, my bones ended up shattering into pieces, and I’d, swung at his knee, and he’d immediately started, bawling in pain on the ground! The third was watching, started shaking and shivering to the side.”
not my photograph…
He’d shown him, that scar from his left forearm, about close to eight-inches. “I’d needed to get the steel plates in, because the bone was shattered completely! The men in charge of the police and our cab company all came, and after they’d asked me what happened, neither one of the blamed me. Later on, we’d not settled, and just took care of ourselves separately. I’d stayed at home for an entire year, spent $30,000RMBs (roughly $150,000N.T.s) of medical bills!”, I’d asked him: during your time off, had you ever thought about how if you would’ve done differently, had you the chance, to do it all over again? He said, with an affirmative voice, “Yes I have! After that incident, everything went downhill for me; if I can do it all over again, I’d let the young man slide and not pay me those \15. And, after that, whether if it was with other drivers or passengers, I’d never gotten into any more confrontations again!”
This was, an even higher “tuition”, and, the lesson learned, more precious too. He’d gotten more and more talkative now, and started again, “the captain of our team, is very tall, over 5’9. One day, he was driving a mother and son, the son was thin, and sat in the front, about fifty-ish, the elderly woman sat in the backseats. They seemed to be from the countryside, so, the elderly woman didn’t know how to operate the door or the windows, was seemingly clumsy. Our captain mumbled a bit, and the son said in a gentle and apologetic voice, “my mother’s from the countryside, she doesn’t know any better.” As they arrived, the elderly was very slow in getting out, forgot to take her luggage and bags with her. Our team captain got out, and pointed at her, and started ranting. The son got off, without a word, just used his finger, pointed at the glass window on the driver side; the thick glass window started breaking. Then, he’d, touched my captain’s chest gently too, my captain suffered four broken ribs.” “The thin man took out a bundle of money, over a thousand dollars, stuffed it into the captain’s hands, asked him to just put up with his mother! Ever since, our captain was like a changed man, no longer spoken in a demanding voice to anybody anymore; he’d become, very gentle and kind since then, and every one of us on his team all saw how he’d changed!”
I’d turned around and asked him, when he was recovering at home, what did his parents say, did they, console with him? “He was an orphan, a child from a poverty stricken area; and so, in the process of growing up, he’d fought with others, to keep himself safe. And now, he’d sent his own son to the martial arts school in Shaolin, paying over \30,000 tuition each year!”
In the short twenty to thirty minutes’ ride, I’d heard several weird and enlightening stories, can I, deduct something from it? The resolves of not wanting to pay the cab fares, it’s quite easy to understand; and the longer trip, the driver should take some money up front, it’s a rule, and common sense. And, being fazed by that woman dressed up to the nines, paying a huge sum; can’t blame anybody else but himself. The captain of the driving team, meeting up with a martial arts master, it isn’t hard to resolve; and, him not showing any kindness to the elderly from the country sides, and gotten his lessons, he’d got what’s coming. And, he’d, changed his attitude on treating others, and, in the long run, it’s, a good thing.
the stories these drivers heard, had experienced, and have to share…not my photograph still…
The harder for me to weigh, was how the driver got into that brawl with the younger men. The three younger guys used their number as an advantage, wanted a free ride, and badmouthed, deserved a beating. The driver’s gutsiness, one against the three, very brave.
Wisdom comes from experience; naturally, that, would be hindsight. No matter, in your own experiences of “paying the tuitions”, you can gain some knowledge, and, whether or not you can gain some wisdom from others’ experiences, that, is another discussion.
So, this, is the experiences of this cabdriver, sharing his stories with the passengers, and, through all of these encounters with an assortment of passengers, he’d learned, how to better help and protect himself, in the various situations, and yeah, he’d lost money, but, the money spent, is still NOT as valuable as what he’d gained from each one of his encounters with other people in the world…
Life, the Obstacle Course 