Many years ago. It was a big leadership meeting for a famous global company. I was at the head table of the large ballroom in the five star hotel, seated with the head poohbahs. Yeah. Cause I'm a philosopher and that's what I do.
A very senior woman says to me across the table, over the beautifully plated meals and glasses of wine: "Tom, you're always talking about the great philosophers of the past, like Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, but where are the philosophers now? Where are the great thinkers of the present day?" I paused a second to allow someone else at the table to point at me, but everyone just looked up from their meals, awaiting my answer, apparently also curious about where a philosopher might be found. I should have worn my "I'm a Philosopher" T shirt. I swallowed my steak and remaining pride and said, "You really want to know?" She then smiled. "Yes, of course!" I said, "They're among the limo and towncar drivers of America." There was a surprised laugh around the table.
"I mean it. What other job to you know of where the person working gets to meet new people constantly and spend often long periods of time with them—an hour, two hours, half a day, sometimes two or three days driving them around, listening to them on the phone, often chatting with them? They drive to weddings and funerals. They take financial people around to their roadshows. They facilitate "Girls' Night Out." They see the good, the bad, and the ugly, human nature in all its facets. They sometimes hear people's stories. Then they get the time to think about what they've seen and heard, time to process it all as they wait for the next client to land or finish dinner or get out of that crucial meeting. Many become wise from what they see and hear and feel from it all. It's like in the Bhagavad Gita, which on the surface is about a great warrior before battle but is really about his driver, his charioteer, who happens to be a deity in disguise. The driver listens to the warrior's troubles then gives him advice, like Bagger Vance, the legendary older golf caddie of fiction and film, whose story was a retelling, in a way, of the ancient tale. When you get into that Uber or Lyft, or that limo or blacked out Escalade, you may be entering the kingdom of true philosopher, even a deity in disguise. Make the most of it. You'll be glad. And, oh, I almost forgot. If you have to go anywhere after dinner, I'll bring a car around."
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