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No not me, but Tommy, who picked us up last Saturday at DIA. We were coming back from a great time in the Bahamas, flying through a big snowstorm and my first ever “medical—emergency” in the seat right behind me. Now I’ll put in a shameless plug for Lyft and flying out of airports. Why would anyone drive their car, leave it parked, and then pay more than it costs take a Lyft? You get picked up and dropped off at your home and 80% of what you spend goes to a local. So we stepped out on Level 6…

Today I celebrate two years of writing “Lyfting Me Up”. Almost every week it has been my joy to have you ride along in my red car. Here are a few things I’ve experienced that I would like to share with you. 1. In 1971, as I began at the Enid State School, Ernestine S, a classic 60- year-old social worker said to a brand new beginning social worker, “Mark- No matter how different these people seem, remember this: they are more like you are, than they are different”. I have now given 4,703 rides to folks who all have…

It has been a very slow time in my Lyft life.  The reality of Christmas time duties in my life as the pastor of Greeley First Christian Church, has made my hobby as a Lyft driver take a break. Yesterday I gave a handful of rides. One of them was a gift to me.  I picked her up in an old SW Denver neighborhood, she was headed to DIA.   She would meet her family at Lake Geneva in Wisconsin for the holidays.  Somewhere about 20 miles out, she asked me what I do besides Lyft.  This opened up the…

Forty years ago I sat in a room full of young aspiring pastor/theologians.  We were listening to Dr. Tom Boyd, a dynamic philosopher who had the unique gift of grounding the seemingly esoteric philosophical concepts into real life.  I do remember “cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am – Rene Descartes) from freshman philosophy 101.  I can think 🤔 about most anything any time, for any reason.  So I certainly “am”.  The two things Dr. Boyd said that have stayed with me are: 1) “We better take care of this earth 🌎, it’s the only home we have.  …

Most of my heroes are women. My June 10th blog told the story of Crystal, a single mom, that I gave a Lyft to, in March. She is battling multiple myeloma (a form of bone cancer). As a result of her disease she had to quit working, lost her apartment, and found herself on the edge of disaster, all the while going for chemotherapy at Presbyterian-St. Luke’s. I have stayed in close touch with her as I am selfishly the beneficiary of her grace filled living. We connected the day before Thanksgiving to go shopping. I am happy to report…

I remember the first time I heard term “the Artist’s Curse”. It was my son Mateo, who was in conversation with an other musician about the reality of having the need to create and share, above all else. This is what I know: writers write, painters paint, dancers dancers, poets ‘poet’, singers sing, musicians play, and Lyft driving preachers get to hear the stories of those who bear the curse, and share both their joy and pain. The Choreographer: it was Monday afternoon and I thought why not turn on my Lyft app on my day off. I had given…

Rarely do I have the privilege of paying tribute to a woman who lived to 101.  Last night I was driving for Lyft in Commerce City.  I had just dropped off a gutsy, resilient woman who told me her story of recently becoming a citizen and voting for the first time.  We were chatting in her parking lot when I got a phone call. By the caller ID I knew it was Ann, Lolita’s daughter. I said to my passenger, “I need to take this call, it’s about one of my heroes who is 101 and in hospice”.  She said…

It was last Friday night and I had just dropped off the crew from Wisconsin at Red Rocks when I got a ride from two young women in Southwest Littleton. It was obvious they were longtime friends and they were headed to the Grizzly Rose for a night of kicking up their heels. We were driving down Jewell Street when one of them said “I can’t believe they’re going to close the White Fence Farm!”  For those of you not familiar with this area, the White Fence Farm sits on about 10 acres in suburbia. For years it has been…

Amed: I began my Friday afternoon with a call to the light rail station off of Alameda and Cherokee. A 40-something man hopped into the front seat and greeted me warmly. He had a very thick accent and began the conversation by saying “Please excuse my English I’ve only been in Denver for 20 months”.  Without prompting he began to tell me that he had come to the US from Egypt three and a half years ago.  He told me he was headed to work, on the west side of town, for a construction company. I made an ignorant assumption.…

Monday is my day off so my new routine includes water aerobics (I love it— that makes me like an official old guy), and my Lyft driving.  Last Monday’s rides were about as perfect a Lyft day as I could’ve wanted. Every ride seem to flow into the other and each person I took was appreciative, friendly, engaging and unique. I picked Jack up in what is now called River North. The area used to be the warehouse district along the railroad tracks and now it is gentrification on steroids.  Jack was headed to the car rental place in the…