My Uber driver was a solidly built man near sixty.<\/p>\n

While driving along Bloor he started to talk about how much things had changed. This, a safe conversational starter for men past a certain age.<\/p>\n

What used to be there.<\/p>\n

What’s there now.<\/p>\n

All the things we had known and lived.<\/p>\n

And so we shared our wonder at the velocity of the world overtaking us, of all the businesses popping up on the blocks passing by and the real estate prices that had long since soared beyond our reach. Each aspect of this conversation revealed an unresolved bitterness in the man, a sense of having missed out, and then a car cut him off. He slammed his fist on the steering wheel, \u201cDID YOU SEE THAT ASSHOLE?!\u201d, he shouted as he accelerated into traffic. I tried to say something neutral yet supportive in tone, and then in an attempt to distract him from his rising fury, I asked where he’d most like to live if there were absolutely no limitations.<\/p>\n

After some struggle, he offered up San Diego, but this only served as an entry point for a long, detailed story about being on a cruise ship with his ex-wife, getting ripped-off at the bar, and the fist fight that ensued. \u201cThey didn’t know who they were dealing with,\u201d he said to me, his voice a cold, flat hiss.<\/p>\n

And then we came to a red light and stopped. It felt like the barometric pressure had changed, that some destructive potential was either gathering or dispersing inside the car. And so we sat there quietly, lonely now in ways that could not be acknowledged. And beside us at the red light a beautiful young woman idled on her bicycle. When her eyes accidentally fell upon us, she quickly averted her gaze, just as we knew she would.<\/p>\n

And then the light turned green.<\/p>\n

She stood up on her bike and pedalled confidently away, into the future, I guess, and there was something so sad and beautiful in this, that neither the driver nor I even thought to speak for the rest of the ride.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

(Photo credit to the great Lincoln Clarkes)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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