Good morning and I hope the air is as clear and crisp for you, as it is here. I have learned over the years to pay attention to people in our society we often don’t pay attention to; like parking lot attendants and taxi drivers. I find that I sometimes learn more in a 10 second or 10 minute conversation with such people, than I learn in an hour or a day with others!

Saturday evening was one such event, a fifteen minute conversation with a cab driver from Vancouver airport to home, has really got me thinking. We were talking about the idea that some people are open, and others closed, and that there is value in both aspects; it is great to be open all the time, but we must also be prudent, that being too open might leave us unprotected and vulberable. He shared a story about standing on a street corner, waiting for the light to change and a car drove past him, and someone in the car yelled an obscenity at him about his ancestry. “I sometimes have to be closed to protect myself,” he explained. “And yet,” he continued, “I really want to meet people and learn as much as I can, and the only way to do that is to be open. This is a paradox.”

I wonder if the route into this paradox is courage. A courage, like this wonderful man exhibited, moving from a land far away, leaving behind all he knew, both good and bad, and coming here to Vancouver, an alien in a strange land, who despite racist slurs, was still willing to gracefully engage with me, and any and all customers in his taxi about matters of life, psychological health and adventure.

May we all find such courage in our lives this week.