“If I cannot guide you, I should not misguide you.”

Who knew it would be an Uber driver that would say some of the wisest words in syntax I would ever have heard. Simply, he was referring to not knowing where the best places were to “eat around here” when I had asked him, but I don’t think he learned the phrase off of simple meaning. If I cannot guide you, I should not misguide you… this goes for a lot of things. People try to fill in the blanks of not knowing everything by pretending to. This is detrimental. If you are unaware of something, own it. It is much better to recognize you lack an answer than to falsely inform someone to make yourself look “all knowing” in the moment. I can think of a lot of modern situations to fit this into. I suppose, in essence, what I learned from this is the vast amount of respect I gained for this man through his honesty—and through his honesty came respect for me and those that I was with. I’m unsure if my respect could ever match his, but I hope he understands how much he gave me to think about.

Talia Bootz

5.6.2017