Today I pulled my headphones out to listen to a song my lyft driver wanted to show me. It reminded me of the time when I was nine and wanted to read Addy’s American Girl story to my mom. I caught her in the middle of doing laundry and I got her to sit down and listen to me read her the book. She later admitted she was initially annoyed that I had asked, but something compelled her to humor me. As we got further into the story, both her and I were in tears.

I had the same feeling my mom did, I didn’t really care to listen to this man’s song, I was initially annoyed when he started talking to me, I just wanted a peaceful ride with no interactions on my way home. Last week my lyft driver would not stop talking about an AI venture he had started. He had quit his job and was learning how to train AI agents convinced this would retire him early. I listened as he listed off all the fields he was aiming to sell AI prompt bundle packs for, doctors, lawyers, “oh you’re a graphic designer? I have prompts for that too”. When I asked him if he had sought out feedback from anyone in any of the industries he had listed he proudly pointed to himself, “Nope, all right here baby”. He just kept babbling on and he sounded clueless, completely clueless and I was like do I tell him? I didn’t, maybe I should have, maybe that would been the kind thing to do, maybe someone will, maybe someone already has.

But back to my lyft driver, when the song came on he was like “This is a good song you should listen to it” and I was like, okay you know what this man wants to show me his song, and maybe it’s a good song, he seemed really excited about it, not in an overt way, more like a subtle internal expression that gave me the sense that it meant something to him. It was “Love Reign O’er me” by The Who. I switched over my focus to the song he wanted to show me. At this point I was committed to listening to this song and I let him know he could turn it up, he moved the volume to 32, I got the sense he was being polite so I encouraged him again, letting him know that if he wanted to blast the song he liked he should, so he moved it a few more volume points up to 41. It was a good song, from the 70’s, I love the music from the 70’s. Halfway through the song he angled his mirror to see if I was approving. Haha I’m not even sure the man even enjoyed his song as much as he was just trying to make sure it connected with me too, but I thought it was sweet that he wanted to share this.

The man looked to be about 65+, so he would have been in his late teens/ twenties when it came out. I wonder what memories this song brought back for him. I didn’t ask, instead we just listened to the music and then another song and then another until I finally made it home, but I’m kind of curious now.