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“It’s been a quiet week here in Lake Lyftbegone”… to parody Garrison Keilor, the king of live radio and the imaginary Minnesota small town. I was a “Prairie Home Companion” junky. I have only given 11 rides this week and each one of them was friendly, interesting and ‘normal’. I decided to keep track and everyone of these passengers said “Thanks for the ride”. This Thursday in millions of homes, homeless shelters, church basements, Elks clubs, VFWs, restaurants and park benches, people will gather to say thanks. Often a question will be asked “What are you thankful for”? The standard…

Yesterday was my Friday afternoon Lyft gig. I picked Greg up on S. Santa Fe at a warehouse. He was headed to the north end of downtown. He engaged me right away in the “how long have you been driving for Lyft, do you like it, what did you do before this”? questions. It opened up what he does. He works for a non profit that provides portable showers and laundry for homeless folk. “It’s a point of connection to try to get them off the streets and back to work. We are having some success”. We were headed to…

In 1979 I found myself as a single parent with two little kids, trying to figure out my life in a world I had never planned to live in. I had shared custody with my kids’ mom. By day I was the Senior Chaplain at a huge state institution for the disabled, but I needed something to do on the three or four nights a week when I was home alone. I thought maybe I could be a waiter. I went down and talked with Jerry A., who owned “The Peppermill” which was ‘the place to be’ during that current…

There are some lessons I have to learn again and again. In the “don’t judge a book by the cover” category I go back to 1st grade on a very regular basis. I love driving on snowy days for these reasons- *** I grew up driving in snow and my 2015 Mitsubishi Sport was ranked a top snow and ice car.*** the Lyft drivers who rent the sedans are snowphobic, *** demand goes through the roof, ***people are genuinely grateful for rides. We had quite the “Halloween snow week” here. Last Monday I picked up a guy standing on the…

It was a picture perfect Autumn day. The leaves were in what I call my favorite color “Fall”. I was going down Speer Blvd when I got pinged with a note, “This is Stacy – you will be picking up Wayne at the curb”. I thought “Great, an easy pick up”. Wayne was there with a box of stuff. We put it in the back of my car and headed to the destination Stacy had selected. “So how’s your day”? Silence— then the 30-something guy in the front seat starts crying. “She kicked me out… I had no idea. My…

I failed retirement. After 10 months of “freedom” I was ready to jump off my balcony. Two different financial advisors had shared with us that we need to generate $xxx dollars to fund our travel addiction. MK was reading the AARP magazine and said “I think I will try driving for Uber”. I said “What’s Uber”. “You remember – last summer in Columbus, Ohio, Amy and Christian used it. People sign up to use their own car to drive people around”. I thought to myself ‘this will last about a week’. I was wrong, after a bit she was off…

Every so often I get a ping, followed by a text message that reads like “This ride is actually for my father. He speaks very limited English, his name is Lupe”. I recognized the address as belonging to the hospital complex at Denver Health. I pulled into the pick up zone at a dialysis clinic. There he was smiling at me in a pretty frail body. He got in the car and we headed to the Park Hill district about 25 minutes away. He thanked me for picking him up. “My English is not so good”. “Well, I speak ‘Spanglish…

A month ago I went on a two-day whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C. to advocate for refugees. It seems that the current administration’s view of our longstanding desire to do our share in welcoming refugees, has been seriously challenged. I was part of a four-person Colorado delegation made up of three clergy types, and a woman who came to Denver at age three as a refugee from Viet Nam. This was not an issue that I had paid much attention to, but as Ken Buck is the congressman representing Greeley and I am a pastor there, someone thought I might…

I picked him up at the RTD Denver International Airport Train Station off of 40th Street. It was one of those pickups where Google’s directions don’t match up with the facts. We finally connected, a hipster with appropriate beard and backpack hopped in my back seat. It was about a 10 minute ride to his home which was just north of City Park. Withoutprompting he said “I used to live downtown. My rent was $850 for a studio. I came back three years later and the same place was $1650. So I found a duplex out here. I loved living…

Joy 🤩 After a month of amazing travel I got back to my Lyfting. Yesterday (Friday) was a reminder that I love doing this for the connections with folk that I encounter. I could write about any one of the 10 rides I gave but to not share with you about this most remarkable young woman would feel like winning the lottery and keeping it a secret. It was ride #9, I had just dropped off a Denver newcomer at the Botanical Gardens and I got “pinged” for a pick up in the same spot. She hopped in the front…