Thursday, April 06, 2006
The Stagecoach Driver
North America in the 1800s was a wild, unexplored place. Anyone who wanted to head west to what is today known as California had to traverse the unforgiving terrain of the Rocky Mountains, mostly in rickety horsedrawn stagecoaches.
The mountain roads were terrible. Winding, ascending paths turned and dipped sharply, and their impossibly narrow width made it all the more challenging to any stagecoach driver. Nowadays we have the Greyhound bus service. How fortunate we are. Hur hur.
Anyway, a company that operated such stagecoaches had recently lost a few of its best drivers in terrible accidents, often falling off the sides of the mountain paths and into deep ravines. It put out a notice of employment, and soon its offices were filled with eager young men looking to be stagecoach drivers. Many of them were skilled at their job, some having driven stagecoaches all their lives.
While waiting for their turn to be interviewed, they gathered eagerly in small groups, boasting loudly to each other how close they could get to the edge without falling off, and how fast they could navigate corners with their horses, in the hopes that maybe the manager would overhear them and be impressed.
However, one man sat in a corner, looking sadly at the rest. Once he spotted the manager, he said quietly, "I wish to withdraw my application". Stumped, the manager asked, "Why? All these young men are rearing to be our drivers and you wish to withdraw?"
Sighing, the man said, "I'm not the kind of guy you want. They all boast about how close to the edge they can get. As for me, I drive as far away from it as possible."
He got the job.
jOhn thought at 11:45 AM