A Pleasant Surprise
Last updated 24/01/2008 15:21:49
London doesn't give you many but when it does there is nothing better than one of its unexpected and pleasant surprises. Many a time I have travelled home late and more often than not the time passes as if nothing. Just another hour or so spent lost in one thing or another.
Last night was a little different.
The first leg of my journey starts at Old Street and as I walked down into the station there was a busker sat at the bottom of the steps. A middled aged Rastafarian, he was sat casually on a beaten up old amp clutching a beaten up old copy of a Fender Strat. As it happens I had arrived just as he had finished a song.
The truth is that at this moment any number of things could have gone through my head. However, I think I must have been in this city too long because I am ashamed to say that all I thought was, 'he's not playing so I will have nothing to feel bad about if I don't give him any money'. Crap isn't it? What can I say - it had been a long day and I wasn't in the most positive frame of mind. As it happens I felt guilty as soon as I caught myself thinking it.
Anyway as I passed him by he started to play and he was fantastic. 'No Woman, No Cry' has always been a great song but it was even sweeter to hear it gently floating down a dirty old underground platform.
He was a great player with a great voice but the truth is these weren't the things that made it so good. As I sat there listening to him play I glanced down the platform and what I saw was brilliant. There were twenty or so people waiting, everyone of them in their own little world listening to our man play the guitar. Some people were tapping their feet, some people were singing, but everyone had a smile on their face.
I never thought I would ever say this but for those five minutes it was great to be stood on that platform.
Now I have no idea how everyone else feels about this moment or whether or not they have even thought about it but I for one owe the man some thanks for reminding me that even in a grim underground station late at night, we are all human beings and can choose to smile whenever we want.