Sunday, September 12, 2010

Super-Glued Pound

“Oh God I know I know I’m running late, I’ll be about 20 minutes, really sorry, get a coffee and I’ll see you very soon, sorry”.    

I was already sitting in the coffee shop when I got the message.    Having got used to my friend’s late arrivals (you know who you are!) I’d bought myself a small pot of tea, not a coffee fan, and felt secretly pleased that I would have some time on my own to sit and watch passers-by pass by.     London really is such a busy city I thought, we must all look like busy bees from a bird’s eye view, swerving in and out of each other’s lives every day.    I am one of hundreds and thousands of people that pass each other on the street never knowing the person they just past or how many times they may have passed them by before, whether any one of them could be someone to fall in love with, later want to forget or more likely not see again.    If the ‘six degrees of separation’ is anything to go on (theory suggesting we are all connected to each other on earth through a series of no more than six acquaintances) then there is little keeping us apart from the people we walk by in the street; we already have the potential to know them.   But what does it really mean to know someone?   Is it the things about them that helps us know them or can we know a little bit of someone without knowing them at all?

Drinking my cold tea I wondered if it’s just me or whether we all get a little philosophical sitting in coffee shops?!   I blame late friends.   And before I had a chance to veer off further I suddenly noticed a £1 coin on the pavement outside right by where I was sitting.   How long has that been there?   Perhaps it’ll still be there when I go outside and claim it!   But I was too late as just then a business-looking woman carrying a briefcase and two handbags (?) stopped in her stride, stood over the pound and bent down to pick it up.   To both our surprise the pound remained where it was.   It was stuck, faultlessly glued to the ground and didn’t want to budge an inch as the woman tried unsuccessfully to pry it free.   I watched her tug and pull at it for quite some time until finally she gave up and walked away.   A super-glued pound, that’s sort of brilliant!


Then just like that, the lines that separated complete strangers from each other started to blur and interactions albeit brief began to take place.    It became almost hypnotic to witness what was happening right in front of me as dozens of people would stop in their tracks, bend down and reach out, and then straighten back up again looking slightly embarrassed.   They would mutter something to each other bemused before continuing to walk on.    It created a momentary focal point for almost everyone on that side of the street; couples, families, children seemed exceptionally enthusiastic and took on the challenge to scrape up the pound and then get to keep it.    But no one had any luck.    This little tease was becoming more valuable than it’s worth.     

For me, the most interesting bit of this practical joke/impromptu social experiment was the fact that no two people’s reactions were the same, each response was an idiosyncratic reaction to the world and how the person himself related to it.     Some people smiled and seemed to appreciate the funny side while others looked less amused at having bent down all the way for nothing.    Several people looked at me suspiciously thinking perhaps I had done this as I sat there in my front row seat watching the mini charade I had created.    No, I couldn’t take the credit.   A man with the biggest back pack I have ever seen was particularly memorable as he hovered above the pound weighing up whether it was worth the pain of reaching down with what looked like a small country on his back and the strength he would need to get back up again.   I guess he decided it was worth it and seconds later his ‘oh well’ shrug of his burdened shoulders was so touching that I had to resist the urge of running outside to give him a pound myself.


The super-glued pound still firmly not going anywhere was playing a silent part in revealing something about each person who encountered it.    In fact at times it appeared to be revealing a great deal; humiliation, anger, humour, shame, confusion, and certainly surprise.     Perhap it is the ‘little things in life’, those subtle blink and they’re gone moments that can say so much about who we are if we pay attention to them.   I thought again about what it means to know someone and realised that I had just got to know a tiny little bit, a pound’s worth, of the people on the pavement that day.    And then I heard someone I did know call my name......

“I am so so sorry, you’ve been waiting ages for me haven’t you, I don’t know what happened this morning I was gonna be on time as well, really sorry”.


“It’s okay” I said, “just sit down and watch this........