Tonight, after meeting up with a friend who is here to observe at his hotel, I took a cab back to the friend’s house where I am staying. Cabbies are often great sources of wisdom, but this particular one had a metaphor I thought was worth sharing.
The streets of San Salvador are empty tonight because of the Ley Seca, which prohibits the sale of alcohol from 12:00 am on Saturday through Election Day. I commented on the deserted streets and he said that everyone was in their houses, a third of whom are simply anxious about the outcome of the race, another third who cannot wait to find out the results, and the final third who are absolutely desperate to know the outcome, and one in 1000 who are actually able to enjoy the moment they’re currently living in. But, he said, no matter what we’ll know the results by this time tomorrow.
He asked if my preferred candidate was the same as his preferred candidate, Mauricio Funes. I replied that as a foreigner I did not have a preference. He persisted. I conceded that the Funes campaign has been impressive and inspired the country, much in the way Obama’s campaign inspired Americans.
He replied with this excellent metaphor: Say I invite a woman to go with me in my car to the beach to eat some fish at a nice restaurant. She says yes, not knowing that I only have enough money to pay for the gas to put in my car. But once I get her there it doesn’t matter that I can’t afford the fish, she already went with me to the beach.
That was probably worth not being able to haggle him down from five to four dollars.
