the manic street preacher
A few days ago I was waiting to meet someone outside the Central Bank of Ireland and there was this man, he was pacing the pavements in his bare feet and had some garda (police) crime scene tape wrapped around his head, plus he was yelling at a bunch of strangers so my first impression of him was that he was daft, a Jesus freak or a panhandler at least, the kind you usually avoid eye contact with. But I looked at him and held his gaze for about ten minutes and listened.
“I got kicked out of my apartment last night just because I caught my girlfriend cheating. See I didn’t do anything wrong but I ended up getting kicked out into the street to freeze, and I was forced to spend the night outdoors. I’m supposed to have too much dignity to admit that I spent a night in the streets. People judged me; people saw me sitting on the street today and think I’m this or that but they don’t know nothing about me…
God loves you, Jesus loves you… that doesn’t mean a thing. Who cares if God loves you or not, it’s not even important. I LOVE YOU! That’s what matters. I LOVE YOU. I was on the streets all day and these kids, man, these kids came up and gave me their change.
It’s like this [pulls out two small curved pieces of cardboard from his pocket, one blue the other red, and holds them up]. You’re looking at these and you’re trying to figure out which one is bigger. Look up around you at all these signs and advertisements, they can sell you an alarm clock for thirty quid by putting it up on a billboard while you can get the exact same thing from sidestreet vendors for a tenner. Where does all that extra profit go? They’re the same thing. It’s an illusion. [Holds up the pieces of cardboard and places one over the other]. The red one appeared bigger but they’re the same size. You were trusting your eyes instead of what was really there, but the kids, man, they came up to me and gave me their change. I love the children. Have a great day.”
Then he walks off.
