So what it all comes down to is this: millions of people from every corner of the Earth - from Kathmandu to Katz’s deli - are jammed together on a small island called Manhattan. They get into taxicabs and talk with their drivers. Communication occurs. And as years go by, a cabbie, looking back, will realize he has been having encounters, perhaps even connections, if not with every person on the planet, then certainly with every type of person on the planet.
He has been having, you might say, a conversation with the human race.