that was early may

A while ago. Took a cab home with Tarif, who talked to me through the rearview mirror as he drove slowly down St. Denis and then talked some more as the lights at St. André changed from red to green about twenty times. Said a lot of things and laughed and looked me in the eye and spoke honestly about things that people don't tend to say. His eyes were twinkly and his teeth were large and yellow and he turned around maybe twice but mostly it was through images that he said,

• education here is meaningless


• there is a book of spirituality where he comes from, which every scholar has to read and we have no equivalent here


• Montreal is becoming and Americanized city because of our obsession with money


• people aren't good here intrinsically, but because they are afraid of the consequences of bad behaviour


• no one expresses their aggression and that is unhealthy


• all the natural food is gone from the world


• this is the closest thing to communism


• there are smart people out there, but why aren't they using their knowledge?

Thinking, these kinds of conversation don't happen with everyone or anyone and how a man like that needs open ears and eye contact and to sit in a cab for thirty minutes after arriving at the destination and the meter isn't running and just let me tell you one more thing and everyone needs to be heard sometimes and I need to have more faith in myself too.