It’s Unfair to Judge Someone Until We Know Their Story

In an article which appeared in the Detroit Free Press, Mitch Albom described a cab ride he took to the Bristol, Connecticut airport. As he got into the cab he said to the driver, “How are you doing?” The driver only nodded and didn’t seem too friendly. As Mitch described him, “He was foreign looking with balding black hair and heavy jowls.” I’m sure Mitch thought it was going to be a long quiet ride to the airport. Half a minute later, the driver said without turning around, “My son is missing. He fall into river. Nobody find him.” He then proceeded to tell Mitch the whole story. Two days later, the driver’s son was found dead in the river. Mitch went on to say, “How many times, in the course of a day, do we encounter people with whom we exchange a few words? Behind a counter? On a bus? Maybe they look sour. Maybe they seem cross…We rarely know what sadness people drag with them to work. If we did, we’d probably be nicer to one another.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *