Uber and a Singing Stranger

Yesterday I was in an Uber, texting with a friend, giggling at the funny things we were sending to each other. The Uber driver started laughing, so I looked up from my phone, and he said, I like your laugh, it’s cracking me up. I thanked him and put my phone down. It’s so easy to forget to connect with the person right in front of you sometimes.

So a New Edition song comes on, and I’m mumble singing some parts to myself, and he’s kind of singing some parts to himself. Then Always and Forever comes on and we are both mumble singing and finally I decide to go for it, and I’m waving my arms around singing in my full voice, and he starts singing in his full voice. I get quiet for a bit and then he says you take this verse, and I killed it and then we finished the song together. We are dying laughing, and as I get out of the car I thank him for a fantastic ride, and tell him he made my day. And he says thanks, I feel the same. So much fun.

As I think of the marketing of Valentine’s Day and its encouragement to turn our love to one person or to lament not having that one person, I feel like that is a missed opportunity. What if love is singing to a stranger, and that person receiving your voice and adding his or hers? What if it is a real smile and appreciative awareness of everyone you see?

It is great to be in love with your beloved, and it is also important to realize love is what we all are, it is our very being, and we can open up to a moment of shared connection just because we choose to do so. We can turn that longing inward and meet and love ourselves and then share that energy. Yes! To love in all its forms.

by Nicole Taylor