The Power of the Pen

Taxi Cab Learning

Last night I had a bit of an awakening, or, you could say, I came to a realization. And it came from a source that always seems to give good advice: a taxi cab driver.

Cab drivers are usually very smart guys: they are in the car all day either listeningto the radio of talking to passengers, hearing other people's stories. Cab drivers--at least in the Washington-area--are also usually immigrants. And being an immigrant, is a life experience that imparts a great deal of knowledge about the world. Not only do immigrants have an experience outside of this country, they also, with few exceptions, come from a country with greater hardships than the United States. They are smarter than you think.

"Where to?" the driver asked me as I sank into the worn back seat of his well-used Ford Crown Vic.

"Tulula," I said. That's the name of a bar and restaurant not too far from my house.

"That's it?" the driver replied. He was hoping for a better fare than the six dollars I'd give him for the one mile trip.

"Sorry, man," I told him. "But that's as far as I can afford to go." I have a habit of telling cab drivers lots of information about myself, so I didn't hesitate to tell him that the economy has me in a vice, and I can't really afford long taxi drives, let alone expensive dinners or high bar tabs.

I then told the driver that I was a writer and I was looking for work. That started a discussion about the power of the pen.

He told me, "It's stronger than the gun. You can do anything with that. Convincing people is a powerful."

I guess I had never thought about writing in that light before, especially with the declining state of the journalism industry, where paying for words has become antique and where newspapers are laying-off journalists by the bucketful.

But hearing it from a cab driver made sense to me. He was right--the pen is a powerful tool. The pen can topple governments, create uprisings, literally change the world. But it has other, less radical, purposes too. Being able to tell a good story has the power to turn ears, to entertain, to attract. Telling a good story with words isn't something that everyone can do, but everyone likes a good story.

I was inspired by that driver.

"Turn around," I told him. "Take me home. I want to write."

"No," he said. "Go out and see the world and see what happens. Then come back and put it on paper."

"OK, I will."

The cab squealed to a halt in front of Tulula and I handed my new friend six dollars.