Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Ive had a life of people wanting to befriend me for no reason, it's what's kept me sane in Canada but sometimes i can get a bit blase about it, so today was a reminder of why I should and do appreciate.
Walking home from the gym, outside the U of T I hear the most beautiful zither playing (!) coming out of the dark. I turn off my mp3 player as i get closer but something else drowns it out - a steaming, screaming fire engine, to be precise. I give the old guy playing a dollar and a glance and he stops...
"Where you from?"
and with that, we embark on a quick life-story exchange and very early on it's clear that he just knows me - and every story told of past and present is understood and relevant and offered without judgement or need for approval. He rifles through his knapsack for a poem he wrote almost 20 years ago outside Cambridge Uni and gives it to me to keep. I read it quickly - it's really quite charming - and then we continue and as I tell him more about my life he stops and gives me another poem, this one a long story about how he exiled he felt when he arrived in this city 7 years ago, only having come for a month to look after his once-ailing mother and not having returned to England since. It's about missing the good parts of England, something I rarely dwell on (although strangely had a long chat with someone special who feels the same only 2 hours before) and it nails exactly what it is about the country that i still love quite a bit. But the point of the poem is how this isnt really an exile - that's for people who can't go back. As if that hadnt made me feel better enough, him giving me as a spontaneous xmas present one of the cd's he was selling just blew me away. And his advice on love was smart and succinct. Much older than I, he'd clearly been through it all and every which way, so I accepted his gifts with good grace and silently vowed to return with some actual money to chuck in his hat. And to ask him permission to post a track on this blog.
A lot of people who ive met here have reminded me of others from my past and Ive taken the opportunity when I can to treat them better than I did the 'originals'. This guy though seemed more like someone I know from my future - the amount of advice he gave me, im inclined to think it's me. Like the Professor from Back To The Future, i've come to meet my younger self and give him just the things he needs to know right now. Sadly zither lessons wasn't part of the deal.
His name is Michael and this is a track from his album "a song for a child growing..."
|
Walking home from the gym, outside the U of T I hear the most beautiful zither playing (!) coming out of the dark. I turn off my mp3 player as i get closer but something else drowns it out - a steaming, screaming fire engine, to be precise. I give the old guy playing a dollar and a glance and he stops...
"Where you from?"
and with that, we embark on a quick life-story exchange and very early on it's clear that he just knows me - and every story told of past and present is understood and relevant and offered without judgement or need for approval. He rifles through his knapsack for a poem he wrote almost 20 years ago outside Cambridge Uni and gives it to me to keep. I read it quickly - it's really quite charming - and then we continue and as I tell him more about my life he stops and gives me another poem, this one a long story about how he exiled he felt when he arrived in this city 7 years ago, only having come for a month to look after his once-ailing mother and not having returned to England since. It's about missing the good parts of England, something I rarely dwell on (although strangely had a long chat with someone special who feels the same only 2 hours before) and it nails exactly what it is about the country that i still love quite a bit. But the point of the poem is how this isnt really an exile - that's for people who can't go back. As if that hadnt made me feel better enough, him giving me as a spontaneous xmas present one of the cd's he was selling just blew me away. And his advice on love was smart and succinct. Much older than I, he'd clearly been through it all and every which way, so I accepted his gifts with good grace and silently vowed to return with some actual money to chuck in his hat. And to ask him permission to post a track on this blog.
A lot of people who ive met here have reminded me of others from my past and Ive taken the opportunity when I can to treat them better than I did the 'originals'. This guy though seemed more like someone I know from my future - the amount of advice he gave me, im inclined to think it's me. Like the Professor from Back To The Future, i've come to meet my younger self and give him just the things he needs to know right now. Sadly zither lessons wasn't part of the deal.
His name is Michael and this is a track from his album "a song for a child growing..."
|
Comments:
Post a Comment
