SENTINEL WATCH September 15, 2008 Issue

WATCHING WHAT WE WATCH

PHIL DAVIS

I REMEMBER a famous comedian doing a stand-up act in which he described going for a taxi cab ride. He said something like: "Isn't it amazing how we're all willing to sit in the back of a cab and watch a cab driver do things we'd never do? Wow! Did you see how he cut that guy off! I never knew you could go down an alley that fast! Hey, he really scared that pedestrian!"

I've taken hundreds of cab rides over the years, so I laughed at all those scenarios.

Afterward, though, I thought more about what I was laughing at. I had to ask myself, Is it right to cut off those other drivers? Is it right to be speeding? Is it right to endanger pedestrains? No, but I had to admit that I hadn't always prayed about it before, because it was the driver's cab and I was just going along for the ride.