Donald Bouton started moonlighting as an Uber driver almost five years ago. That’s not so unusual. A lot of St. Louisans took up second jobs in ride-sharing — or even a first one — after it debuted in St. Louis in 2015.
It’s the project Bouton launched while he was driving that’s unusual. In April 2016, he began keeping pen and paper in the back seat of his car and asking passengers to share a few thoughts.
And as Bouton explained on Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, he found the perfect question to ask them as a writing prompt after conversing with a passenger traveling with a service dog. The man, Marcus Engel, confided he’d been blinded by a drunken driver who T-boned his car.
“He recalls waking up in a hospital bed, couldn’t see, he had a trach so couldn’t talk, he was in excruciating pain and just terrified,” Bouton recalls. “I asked him, ‘How did you get through that?’ He did not wait a second. He immediately said that it was a lyric from a Bob Dylan song.”
The song was “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (“When you're lost in the rain in Juarez when it's Easter time, too/And your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through … ”). It took Engel, then 18, from fear about his condition to a new life as a motivational speaker.
Bouton was wowed by Engel’s positivity. “After talking to him, I was just so inspired,” he said. He began asking all his passengers to share what helped them pull through adversity.
Their stories provided a serious dose of inspiration — and, ultimately, a book. “Backseat Inklings: Driving Positivity into the World, One Rider at a Time” is Bouton’s self-published account of his guests’ responses, unexpurgated and in their own handwriting.
“They were a little cynical, a little guarded at first, but after a while I got a little more confident asking them to do it,” Bouton said. He now averages a notebook a month, with passengers sharing their thoughts on life, St. Louis and so much else.
Listen:
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill, Lara Hamdan and Joshua Phelps. The engineer is Aaron Doerr, and production assistance is provided by Charlie McDonald.
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