Some Of What Can Be Done…

The shuttle driver in Oahu, Kai. Just him and me. A ten minute ride from the medical clinic to the airport.

“Nobody wants to go to the doctor on Friday,” he says, explaining the empty van. “They’d rather be at the beach.” He laughs heartily. I couldn’t help but laugh, too.

“You going to the beach this weekend?” I asked.

“Nope! I smoke meat on the weekends. Like barbecue on the continent. Not like the locals.” He admits he’s a local. “Sell it at the Farmer’s Market in Waimea.”

“Fish, too?”

“Oh yeah. Go to the wholesale fish market early Saturday mornings.”

“I’ve always wanted to do that! It sounds exciting!”

“Yeah!” He smiles and nods to me.

“Your kids help you out?” I ask him.

Then he tells me about his four children. His son working as a commercial fisherman. His oldest daughter running a trucking company she built from the ground up in Sumter, South Carolina. “Just got back from visiting. I’d like to move there myself. All the space, all the seasons.”

His third child turned into his third and fourth when he and his wife found out they were having identical twins. They named their daughters Faith and Hope. Faith is moving to Texas to be with her boyfriend and Hope will likely follow. They’re close. Then he’ll have no more kids at home.

I loved his story. He loved telling it. When he dropped me at the airport we grinned and waved goodbye as friends. So much better than what my phone offers up.

People light up when you’re truly interested in them. They can tell when you give them your full-hearted attention. Urging someone to tell their story puts them in touch with the gentle, impossible beauty of their lives, the astonishment of their own experiences, the truth that they are remarkable.

Being curious about someone’s story isn’t all that can be done, but it’s some of what can be done.