The Kindness of Strangers

It is incredible how some days tend to be driven entirely by the kindness of absolute strangers. And sometimes that is the only way to bridge really hard days frustrated by many events. So this is a tale of a few people today who actually helped me by simply talking to me.

The incredible View from office

Ever since I started using Lyft for the commute during the short stay here, it is actually amazing to meet the kind of people - one never gets to meet - and share experiences on various things that goes on in life.

Being Monday, the day starts with a handicap. However, I got up early as I'd a flight to catch - to go to Salt Lake City for a lunch meeting and returning the same evening.

The Tree of Knowledge

Alejandro drove me from the hotel to the airport. A pleasant man - at 54 - seemed rather young. He drives Lyft from 3AM to 9AM and then, goes ahead with driving if he feels like so. When I told him about the long day ahead, he sympathized and said he understand why my hair is so gray. With a sense of humor, he was talking about the Garment dealer - who was also an Indian - who tried to recruit him for driving Semis for his warehouse. He mimicked the way the guy was chewing something in his mouth and talking.

The North Visitor center has this marble statue of Jesus

Paul picked me up for the ride from the Salt Lake City airport to Lehi where the meeting was scheduled. He was a man of information talking about the attractions in Salt Lake city and how I can plan my day to make the most of it. We started talking about the Mormons and the Mormon customs and he amused me by saying he had 6 daughters and 5 sons. And in the front windshield, his last daughter has scribbled 'I love you more than you love me - your favorite daughter' which was incredibly loving. We talked about the teenage daughters and how it is important to let them chose their lives than we deciding it for them. I couldn't agree more.

Adam and Eve looking confused about the embroidered dress

One thing everyone in SLC seemed interested to talk about - to me at least - is the Mormon faith and customs and about the LDS church. It was interesting to hear about - I've read the Book of Mormon a long while back during my bachelor days in Omaha , so it was a little easy to talk to them about it. While I don't find it very different from any other religion, it is also interesting to see what they've made of the entire Utah region - deserts, canyons and heck, the largest salt water lake - into a prosperous area. So it is always interesting to talk to them to figure what makes them so good at that.

The Temple

Dale was my next ride who drove me from Lehi to Provo. A son of a second generation Japanese immigrants - his great-grand father came to California as an immigrant and they moved to Utah eventually. He had a strange Dreamcatcher-like thing hanging on his car. Instead of the web in the middle, it had a picture of a wolf in it and he explained that it is called a 'Mandala' and the animal in the middle is one speared. I was surprised and asked him whether he speared a wolf. He didn't answer it.

The Organ in the Tabernacle

Aline picked me up to drive the 61 miles from Provo to the Temple Square in Downtown SLC. A beautiful girl, she was from Sao Paulo, Brazil and that explained the beauty instantly. She was studying English for the past 2 years in BYU and is driving cars for Lyft during the free hours. I asked her what is it she eventually want to study - and she mentioned psychology and to specialize in kids psychology. Since her language was Portuguese, she wanted learn English properly as psychology involved a lot of speaking to people. So I asked her about what she thought of France winning the Soccer world cup. She blew into anger - France stole the world cup from Brazil in 1998 and she cannot bring herself to watch France play any match after that. Of course, Brazil doesn't deserve to win this world cup but 2022 is not far and they will win. We talked about Neymar and she was mad that he made Brazil football into a laughing stock. Again, we talked about the LDS church and how there are many Brazilians in the city who congregate for the Portuguese service.

The Handcart Pioneers

Temple Square - in the middle of downtown SLC has the most beautiful, stone-built church - the first LDS church - started in 1853 - standing in the middle and an assortment of buildings 100-120 years old with two visitor centers to boot. It was beautiful and I was just a little sad that no one - other than LDS members - are allowed inside.

Sister Angela caught me walking around the exhibits in the South visitor center. I was just about to exit when she caught me. Then started a conversation which was prodding and prying to understand the mind of the other and to see if I can be made into a LDS member. I enjoyed the verbal duel with her - mostly around being agnostic and about Christianity and about family - and when I mentioned that I would've loved to go inside the Temple and see that, she said I can become a LDS member and then I can get in easily. When I asked her whether I can become a honorary member for a day and get in, she mentioned that no one has asked for a one-day membership before. We agreed to disagree and I got out.

Nothing beats the sunset in the West

After getting a text that my red-eye to Newark has been delayed by 4 hours, I was really in a foul mood to get to the airport at the end of a really long and tiring day. So I got into the TSA security check at SLC airport and removed the belt and the rest of the stuff and putting in the basket - when the TSA officer - Brian, per his badge - asks me who do I think will win the next Cricket world cup. I was pleasantly surprised and asked him how the hell he knew anything about cricket. He says he is originally from Australia and so, he follows cricket very well. We talked about the India - England series and I was not sure whether he was sad about Australia playing badly or England looking good. I told him that India will win so he needn't worry and we just laughed.

So I am sitting in the SLC airport - 11.14PM now - and another 4.5 hours to kill and I am thinking about all these guys who made a rather a long and tiring day a little more tolerable by simply talking. Nothing more is needed.