Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - April 25, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
“I” in this piece refers to a Catholic priest with a cane but no Roman collar. RH stands for “ride-hailing”, the service whereby you use an app to call from a smart phone for a driver and car. Items below are more from a two week stay in San Francisco, February, 2017. You do the reflecting!
On a Monday morn the RH driver is Chu; it has been two years since he came from Taiwan to the United States. Later, awaiting another driver, I have a little trouble catching his attention. A young lady sitting outside a cafe runs out and gets the driver to where I am. Will is about 30 years of age and born in Guatemala. His English is very good and he thinks it’s an easy language.
The next day I take the cable car to Sansome and meet Tom, an alumnus, at the Blue Bottle coffee shop and we have a very rewarding 1 ½ hour conversation. The spot is trendy and very, very busy. Tom, a onetime football star, has a very active mind, is refreshingly enthusiastic and, to my delight, is excited and so hopeful about Pope Francis.
Going to my lodgings Tabil is the name of the driver from war-torn Yemen. He has been here a few years though without his family. At my lodging I ask assistance to get up the inevitable incline and he is most gracious in taking my arm. In parting he says in minimal English, "I like helping you; I am Muslim." Possibly he feels the need to make a point that Muslim is no synonym for terrorist. Happily that seems unnecessary in San Francisco. At the house sitting in the parlor is handyman Marco whose immigrant father picked strawberries.
Returning from North Beach my driver is a smiling young man named Laung from Burma, the father of an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old. He is amazed at having a customer over 50. He asks to what I attribute my age, mobility and good health. I say “Genes, and I feel blessed.” As he lets me off at my door he says, “God bless you” and I return the benediction.
Thursday morning on the way to coffee I try to catch the attention of the RH driver Charles to help me from the incline to the car and as he is about to come over a woman going by beats him to it and takes my arm. Charles says he's from Africa. I say Kenya? He looks at me and asks how I knew. I say it was a guess simply because I work closely with a man named Kimeu from Kenya. Charles came here three years ago all by himself.
After Mass one morning I quickly get an RH driver, a very pleasant young Ethiopian woman named Feven. She and her husband have a 20-year-old and a 14-year-old. A rosary is hanging from the rearview mirror so I ask if she is a Catholic. She says, “No, Orthodox (Coptic)." We talk briefly about that and she opines that they are very close....
On another trip my driver is Tiang Peng, a San Francisco-born male. Later another, Jeff, turns out to be a Californian too. Waiting for him I have a little trouble getting his attention. Three young women sitting outside a coffee shop notice my ineffectual cane-waving and one volunteers to get the driver. He makes a U-turn to where I am and the women wave me goodbye.
Bedad, RH driver another time, is an Iranian who has been in California for 42 years. In the course of a friendly conversation he asks what I am doing in the city. I tell him I do alumni relations for a university and describe it as fun and fattening. He says: “Isn't that what it's supposed to be at your age, fun and fattening?” It doesn’t take much persuasion for me to go along with this. A bit later I give more credence to his opinion when I buy four pieces of panforte for “future reference”.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
