Strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet
August 18th, 2008It seems obvious when you say it, but you meet a different set of people wandering around London during the day than you do working in a bank.
Yesterday, I walked from Covent Garden to Primrose Hill to see the view. The most prominent part of the southern horizon was the nest of mechanical cranes on almost every building. I counted 54 of them.
Since it was Monday morning, there were just a few moms out with their kids, an older, perhaps retired, couple, and me…and a community police officer (or at least a guy dressed like one).
I was reading my book on one of the benches when the officer sat down at the other end of it. All the other benches in the park were empty, but he sat next to me and started talking about the weather, the relative absence of people in the park, and how he likes to have fun at work, “because otherwise, what’s the point?” He asked my name, I told him, and he said, “Ah, like Robert Redford. And you have his same golden hair and good looks.” Was a cop hitting on me? I wonder what the residents of Primrose Hill would think about the kind of fun in the park their council taxes are supporting.
On the way home I saw again the guy who stands on the corner of Garrick Street calling out, “If you are lost or need information”. I wanted to ask him something to see what he was up to (performance art? an entrepreneur? a shy person trying to become bolder?), but all I could think to ask were questions that would sound facetious (e.g., Where is the nearest undiscovered horde of Roman coins?).
“If you need information”, is a very open-ended offer, however, and if I see him again I will definitely find out what he is up to. Maybe he is exploiting the Pareto Principle and asking for a fee from the 80% who want to find Covent Garden, the British Museum, or the tube station. For the rest, he can just say he doesn’t know. If that’s the game, I’ve missed an opportunity by helping all those lost people for free.