Death comes for everybody… for some too late
If you ignore every quote or opinion/attitude about death, you still die. I’m comfortable talking about death. We’re old friends.
Driving Uber during snow season is not very high on my list. Not at all. My car has no problems with snow. My wheels take me safely on any road and conquer most slopes, while avoiding other cars sliding down. I can cope with the highway on a blizzard. All these are possible because I’m a decent driver and a decent human being.
What I’m scared of is not death, but dying because some idiot doesn’t value his life at all, not to mention other people lives. One month into the winter and there is at least one dead every day in a car accident. Guess what? The stupid people don’t die! The one that provoked the accident for no matter the reason survives. He’s always confused and definitely not guilty in his opinion. In the same time, kids are losing their parents, parents are losing their kids, and promising futures are buried six feet deep.
I decided not to do Uber this winter after one too many passing-by an accident. I’m done. Having the burden of some stranger’s life that just happens to be in my car is not something I wish for. While I assume responsibility for my driving style (much improved while Uber-ing). I can’t take responsibility for all the idiots out there. I’ll drive for myself. It’s a risk I can live with.
I was looking to the recordings of my dashboard camera from yesterday. I counted three cars passing me with at least 130 per hour driving on snow. All of them old cars, one with the driver’s door already half destroyed. I respect the speed of anybody rushing to a death date. The fact that they take innocents along for the ride or involve other cars in their last dance is just stupid. And that driver reading his newspaper on the steering wheel on the highway will become the star of short movie that will get sent directly to the police.
Death has some very bad timing and not a very accurate selection system. It comes too late or not at all for the stupid driver.
Short disclaimer: The Journal of an Uber Driver is a work of fiction.
Long disclaimer: The literary exercise to define a nowadays character for a novel led me to create these 25 blog posts. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Any opinion expressed about Uber should not be interpreted as having a negative connotation. I admire the company as an incumbent of the platform economy and I am a registered Uber driver for research purposes.