On Bono Busking in Bologna
I’ll make my thesis statement now: thanks to a bizarre and serendipitous series of consequences, my friends and I stumbled upon the lead vocalist of U2, Bono, busking on the streets of Bologna. I’m going to try and make a larger point about that fact, though I do just want to let myself sit in the sheer coolness of it first. It has been pointed out to me that I (like most people, I assume) tend to fixate on the negative things in my life to the detrimental result of ignoring or glossing past the genuinely good things that happen.
My theory is that I have a narrative somewhere deep in my mind, an extremely forgiving one that usually tells me something along the lines of me being woeful and pitiable and that any hardship I bear is unjust and not my responsibility. I may be pushing it a bit, but my point is that I focus on the facts that support that narrative, that prove that I am a victim of the world. Honestly, even I didn’t expect this to get as dark as it did from as happy a beginning as we had, but let’s see if I can turn this around.
As a result of that twisted worldview, it often takes spectacularly good or lucky things for me to accept that such things happening is actually possible. It is, in a way, the universe throwing a whole bunch of good in my direction, hoping some of it will stick in my mind long enough for me to reasonably expect more of the same. And it was a lot of good that surrounded the moment of seeing Bono. It was preceded by an absolutely delicious lunch with friends – the subject of yesterday’s piece – that I honestly thought about all day. We actually then saw Bono playing right next to The Two Towers in Bologna, itself a beautiful landmark, at which point he kept it short and sweet; playing two songs, one of which was a favourite of mine.
A wonderful side-effect of a great thing like that happening was that the small things I enjoyed for the rest of the day seem that much nicer in retrospect. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, I sorted out some pesky emails, caught up on some great shows, and went out for yet another delicious meal with friends and someone we had met that day. It is apparent then, how valuable having this positive lens can be, and so I must learn to replicate it if not on command, at least get to the stage where it doesn’t require seeing one of the most famous living musicians to appreciate the beauty in a day. I don’t know how to achieve that, but I have an idea. That is, to tally any good thing that happens to me on a given day, no matter what my general feelings about it are. There will be days when that list is short, when the bad outweighs the good but a) that’s subjective and b) there will hopefully be far more days with a long list of things for which to be grateful.