Dam Busters

The notion that one’s popularity in a herd is interesting to me. How does one get to be a big kahuna then? Something as absurdly knee-deep as bigger is best? As insalubrious as mere good looks? As lofty-minded as self installation? How exactly?

I find popularity contests a bore, an affront to my sensibilities that I can’t make up my own mind about who I choose to hang out with, for whatever reason! And I hang out with many different kinds of people for many different kinds of reasons.

I volunteer to work in a soup kitchen because feeding the homeless is an active participation in an activity (some may consider inconvenient) considered by me to be better than throwing money at it. That would definitely be easier.

Do I mind that some of those toothless grins don’t smell so great? Not particularly. Why? Because I look for them. There’s a wonderful line in the movie Hook” (“When Capt. Hook kidnaps his children, an adult Peter Pan must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit in order to challenge his old enemy.”) and the Lost Boys don’t believe Peter Banning is Peter Pan but Pockets touches his face and finally recognises him. “Oh, there you are, Peter!

I like to touch people’s faces (figuratively speaking for the most part but literally when I know them well) because I like to find them, I like to say, “oh there you are!” It’s humbling and it’s nurturing to my spirit. It forces me to look deeply in their eyes and hearts and understand that connection is the very least that another human being may want or need. Something well within my capability to give.

I love finding the most solitary person I can and sitting beside them, saying nothing, just being together. I see how long it takes for them to break the silence because I don’t mind it myself so I’m not that uncomfortable about sitting in it for however long it takes. Sometimes I just slip my arm through theirs and sit some more. That’s a real ‘nutcracker’ that one.

When the dam breaks, it has a way of drawing the crowds and suddenly solitary isn’t solitary anymore. It’s togetherness and connectedness, it’s being someplace where they feel warm. Vying for popularity makes no sense in this context, one just is because one is with people who ‘see you’. All the rest, well it’s irrelevant in the circumstances.