I came across this story recently, and I think it carries a very important message, and I would like to share it with you all :)
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http://www.quirkynomads.com/mp3/121605.mp3
One morning in December 2005, podcaster (online audio reporter) Sage Tyrtle was surprised to see an old man pushing by Toronto rush hour subway commuters who were labouring up a steep flight of stairs. Moving very quickly, the old man poked fun at everyone, saying: “Move on now, move out of my way. I’m an old man – I’m getting up the stairs faster than you!”
Once seated on the subway, the old man cheerfully chatted about how uptight people from Toronto were, and that “you gotta go to Vancouver where everybody says ‘Hi’. In Vancouver, everyone’s relaxed. In fact I’m going right now to get me a couple of beers to help me wake up”.
The commuters exploded in laughter, said Ms Tyrtle, then everyone listened carefully to what he had to say. He explained that a little alcohol (“medicine”) is good for you, but too much makes you sick. He explained that Elvis Presley died young because his doctor gave him medicine and he overdid it. “Forty years old. I’m 70, you see? Shoulda lived to be 110, Elvis Presley, with all that money. Whap bop alloobop, whop bam boom,” he sang.
Everyone laughed again. The train lurched and Ms Tyrtle started to fall, but very quickly the man behind her caught her – something she’d never experienced in Toronto.
The old man went on to chide the audience about getting his teaching for free, because he was usually very expensive. “You look on TV, you’ll see me. You will know who I am. This is not my real face.” At the College Street stop he said: “I don’t go to college any more – I graduated! I’m a professor now. But I don’t teach, I prophesize. Oh, what is that? I never use that word myself. It’s new to me. That’s a big word, prophesize.”
Getting off the subway, the old man started singing: “Kansas City here I come. They got some pretty ladies, got to get me one,” adding, “I want more than one – I’m not satisfied with one lady. I gotta have more than one. I got an old lady, and a young lady. How do you like that? That’s not bad.” He started to leave the train. “Ok. Bye bye. I’ll miss you!” he chimed. Many said goodbye back. He sang the tune ‘Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think’, and called: “Bye bye, folks! Put an egg in your shoe and beat it!”
Ms Tyrtle ended her podcast by saying that after the doors had closed one woman said: “Well, that put a smile on everyone’s face!” Thinking about the experience herself, she commented: “It felt like that smile had somehow stretched to include the entire city, so that the normally taciturn commuters were suddenly talking to each other, laughing and grinning, for no reason at all.”
The podcast can be heard at
www.quirkynomads.com/mp3/121605.mp3. In the last few seconds, the original recording is played of the ‘old man’s voice as he leaves the subway.