Have a good life!

Alexandre was my Uber driver towards my place in Copacabana. He was from Paraíba. We connected through place, I had been there before, and that was enough to open the door. He had come to Rio for work, for stability, more cash, leaving his daughter behind. Her absence lived in his voice. He spoke with a quiet kindness, simplicity shaped by strength. His Bible rested on the dashboard like a witness. He was smiling a lot at me. He was light. As we left the airport, the sun was falling, coqueiros casting sharp shadows, light cutting the car into pieces. In Brazil, everyone moves this way mostly because of lack of safety, no public transport. Rich or poor, day or night, by Uber or moto. Strangers carry strangers.

This painting holds the intimacy of that passage. The strange closeness of sitting beside someone whose name you may never remember, whose life briefly holds yours. You listen. You trust. You go deep… and then it ends. That was it. Brazil taught me to love these connections, to enter them fully without needing to keep them. Every Uber ride is this: a beginning and an ending – clean, complete, and unrepeatable. That’s why the only honest farewell felt simple: have a good life – uma boa vida pra você, meu amigo. A blessing for someone you will never meet again, and somehow, for yourself too.

Sometimes, I truly mean it when I say have a good life to these brief, often tender encounters. I hope he gets to see his daughter soon wherever he is now.