The Quiet Streets of Richmond

Picture London, one of the greatest cities in the world! Multicultural population, thousands of people living together, with so many tourists around all the time it's hard to ever be alone, you might think.... Some areas in this busy city are quite the opposite: quiet, deserted, suspended in time.

I was thinking about that tonight as I was walking up Richmond Hill. It was barely 8:30 p.m. yet for a 20-minute walk, I saw 6 people... SIX. And they were all in the more popular part of the borough. It feels so strange to walk in the darkness (London is way up north so it gets dark early) and hear no sound except for the occassional wind whistling and see no one around me... For a moment, I really thought time had stopped and I was the only person out there.

I was the sole soul roaming these streets. There was a black cat, too. All the little English houses were dark, though a few had their lights on, but no one in the living room. Only two homes were inhabited at that time, one of an artist who also kept fitness equipment in his living room, and the other of a person watching TV. Where did everyone go? In all those movies where a nuclear weapon wipes out all people but miraculously leaves the houses intact, the main character would walk down deserted streets, pretty much like I did tonight.

I could even hum my own song... Heck, I could shout at the top of my voice and no one would care because no one would hear because no one was there! Solitude can be depressing.

Only I was not depressed - far from it, I was imagining I was the main character in such a movie and was trying to solve the mystery of all the disappearing people... :)

Once again I need to say, maybe out of the blue, that people should be happy with what they get. They should cherish the moments of happiness and not focus on everything negative in their lives. That is where most problems with people come from - from their inability to APPRECIATE things. I could have wined about how boring those streets were and how I was oh so alone and miserable... HA. Some other time, baby.

Like artists who make sculptures out of junk they have at hand, or cooks who just look in the fridge and make do with whatever's in there only to create a Jamie-Oliver-class meal... in such a manner, people should take advantage of what they have and be glad they have it!

So stop complaining NOW and be grateful for even being here!