Funnelling wisdom during an oil change

Many of us have been wondering if things are ever going back to the way they were before the pandemic. Truth is, for many places on the planet, they already have. And this morning, I had an interesting conversation about that, with my mechanic.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
To be curious not judgmental. Nowthat's a quote from an episode of Ted
Lasso or the character claims he readit on the side of a building back
home in America. He attributes itto famous American poet Walt Whitman, and
like a lot of things in theinformation age, it turns out not to
be true. Now. I mean, the sentiment in the idea behind the
words and how it fits into thatApple TV series is true, but it
wasn't written by Whitman. Google easilydebunks that. But then again, we

(00:24):
can always find someone somewhere in theInternet who will agree with us even when
we're wrong. However, I likethe idea at the heart of that quote
that everyone has an opinion these days, and fortunately for me, I get
paid for mine. But I alsosaw this quote the other day. Your
feelings are important, but they're notmore important than logic, they're not more
important than facts, and they're nomore important than anyone else's feelings. Now,

(00:46):
that's what a dad told his youngestchild, adding it should also be
directed to ninety nine percent of socialmedia users. I'm including myself in that
group too. Now. Earlier thismorning, I took my old car in
for an oil change, in acheck up, and the next one scheduled
in the car hits over six hundredand sixty thousand kilometers. Now I've only
piled on about half of those myselfover the years, but the car has

(01:07):
been serviced and fixed by the samemechanic we've had for years now. I
don't know what he'll do if hedecides to retire, since I've always said
it's a lot easier to find oldcars that don't work than old mechanics who
do work on them. But Ericis a character in his own right,
and Acadian who started working in servicestations. He tells me in nineteen sixty
nine, a year before I wasborn. Well today it was the first
time I'd seen him since his tripdown south, and well that was his

(01:30):
first beach side adventure in about threeyears because of the pandemic. Now he's
a man who's full of knowledge andstories, and to strangers he might seem
a little bit grumpy or guarded untilhe gets to know you. He's a
man of few words. Closing inon two decades of knowing each other.
He's a man with a great senseof humor and a knack for making me
laugh, and that's because he's curious, and if we're being honest here,

(01:53):
a little bit judgmental, but well, it's on a spectrum. And he
mentioned how he spent a week inCubic didn't see a single match on anyone
anywhere, and it was the sameon the plane on the way down and
back. And his comment was,well, if no one else is wearing
a mask, neither am I.But it was interesting to hear him say
how that as soon as he gotback, he went to the grocery store
and noticed all kinds of people whowere masked up, and he asked,

(02:15):
is there something wrong with us?But not in a derogatory or mean way,
and he added this for context,it seems like we're back where we
were a little five years ago whenit comes to viruses and bugs around us,
back when hardly anyone would have eventhought about putting on a mask out
in public. And his trip southwas a bit of a public health reset.
I think for him he was alwaysup to date on vaccines. I'm

(02:35):
sure he was mindful of not spreadinggerms if he was sick, but I
think he was curious about why somepeople are still clinging to the habits they
developed at the height of the pandemic. Now, of course, there are
immune compromised people around us, andeven doctor Strang says we need to treat
the virus with respect, but tohelp the ones who still seemed paralyzed by
fear. Again, I'm not judging. I'm just curious about how we reset

(02:58):
and go back to the way itwas before