up“lyfting”ing
I’m just going to throw some bait out into the wild here and see what happens.
I just had the most riveting Lyft ride of 2019. I met this guy David (also David, if you see this please DM me) and we got to chatting after I almost made him get hit by a moving car in the Upper West Side.
I told him that today I already had some bad karma and if that had happened it would have been the cherry on top for many nightmares to come.
Backstory: I was in a rush getting off a crowded subway and accidentally knocked a crippled old man. (I still feel incredibly guilty about this.)
We debated this concept — David asked me “if the man had not been crippled would I still feel guilty?” “if it was an ordinary old man would I feel guilty” to which after some thought I realized “it’s like when you bump into someone full body on the streets on NYC and you say sorry even though that’s not the status quo here and no one cares.”
Which brought our conversation to an interesting tail-head. David introduced himself as a real estate something fancy from dumbo (really if this sounds familiar lmk) and I retorted that I work for a software company. He guessed that I was having a hard time and I replied that the transition to full-time adulthood has been challenging. David replied that I should tell him what was going on, he could be my therapist, and in the next 25 min of our car ride — he would listen.
And that’s when it came to us. We brainstormed a mini-business venture where we could go around in Lyft’s and ask people personal questions to let them vent. This light conversation about karma and work turned into a business plan in the making. What legal issues should we consider — well neither of us are licensed therapists but we are amicable and friendly, would we get in trouble with Lyft, should we ask forgiveness not permission…we considered the framework for marketing — it would go on youtube, like a cute short similar to the driving with comedians bits…we considered the business plan — I could handle the tech and he would handle the finance.
It would be called “uplyfting” and people would get out of the car feeling truly uplyfted. I really do right now.
I mean truly — Lyft if you are listening — consider this for your next marketing ploy. (Please give Elle Shwer & David credit though.)
The rest of the car ride became uplyfting. We discussed our dating lives, the woes and the battles. The hinge dates, the first dates, the worst dates. We joked about how to end things with people at the first date, tricks to gauge actual interest, the full gamut.
And then, I arrived at my apartment and hopped out without getting his full name or any way to make our business plan become legit which is truly a bummer. So I’m writing the article just to capture the memory — because it’s a wholesome one.
Not bad for a 1:30 am Lyft pool on a Sunday morning.
