taxi cab confessions

Living in DC, I have felt inundated with Presidential primary gossip, news, and innuendo. And despite being a bit of a political junkie, I have found myself starting to tune it all out. Then, on my way to Union Station last week, I had a truly inspiring conversation about the Presidential primaries with my cab driver - a new citizen originally from Ethiopia. He shared my frustrations about the non-stop coverage. And he also shared my support for John Edwards who had dropped out the day before. But now he was whole heartedly endorsing Obama - and I assume sharing his new enthusiasm with everyone who happened to enter his cab. He spoke with contagious excitement about how this election could really change things in America. “You can see it in the young kids voting,” he said. Then he shared his reason for supporting Obama.

“Some people think change is just going to come knock on the door. Change doesn’t work like that. Change is like a mushroom that starts underground and in the right conditions will spread out of control from one place to another.”

Obama, he said, was the mushroom, and that the conditions were right. While I haven’t decided which of the two remaining Democratic candidates to throw my support behind in next week’s primary, I can only hope that my sage cab driver was correct that change was in the ground. If I do choose to vote for Obama, he will have my cab driver to thank for it.