REALITY CHECK #5 - ATTITUDE

I knew I was going to be writing on attitude soon but somehow I wanted to resist the temptation to make it sooner. I knew one thing, I didn't want to sound like...forget it.

[Source]

I wasn't sure how I was going to put it, until my day happened and I was heading home. I boarded a taxi to Mokola from Bodija, I sat in the passenger seat and soon the last passenger joined us. The driver said he liked my shoes, I said thank you. Then the last passenger asks for the fare then he replies '40 bucks'. My lips curled into a smile Ibadan taxi drivers don't say 'bucks'. I noticed his mild road rage as he chided a sashaying pedestrian crossing the road. Then I noticed his hand, his right palm was deformed, leprosy I guessed. Soon he began singing...

'It's gonna be good,
It's gonna be good in the morning
God has given us an assurance
That everything's gonna be good'

A song that gave me a nostalgic feeling. My siblings sang it a lot when we were way younger, a song of hope.

There he was, so contagious. The last passenger joined him in singing and made a remark when the taxi driver chuckled about it, he said "Did you think you were going to be the only one enjoying the song?" I caught myself smiling again.

[Source]

He attended to alighting passengers with courtesy. As we approached the last bus stop he honked his horn at another pedestrian, greeted the man loudly and politely. The last passenger asked that the man must be someone the taxi driver knew, the taxi driver affirmed saying the man was of great help to him when he the taxi driver was a goal keeper, almost getting him to travel abroad to continue his football career before the accident he had during a football match, leaving his hand deformed, that's why he's driving a taxi now.

As I alighted it felt like the polite thing to say was 'sorry' or 'what a pity' but deep down that was not what I felt. This man was no taxi driver on the inside. I wanted to ask his name and number, I felt like telling the world about him, he had practically preached a gospel to me right there in his car for less than ten minutes drive. Hope, joy. I paused as I watched him make a turn, I was almost crossing my arms, amazed by this unusual taxi driver who had the attitude. Choosing the way to respond to life.

[Source]