Smiley

Last night, a memory from sydney came back to me and I thought: I have to share this before I forget it and it is lost forever.

One beautiful day I was walking into downtown sydney from Kings Cross with a fellow traveller, and some older man with a very friendly demeanor started walking along side us, and said to my friend "Your shoelaces are untied." She looks down at her thongs (read: flip flops) and we all have a good laugh.

A couple days later I'm walking along the same street by myself, and he comes along and does the same 'intro', then walks with me for about 10 minutes sharing with me his favorites jokes and his secret to happiness.

He tells me that when he was young, just after WWII he somehow lost his parents and became homeless, and has been ever since, but he's always kept his spirits up, and has always been happy. He tells me you just have to be positive, not take things too seriously, and tell jokes because they make people happy. I think his name was Smiley; he had it on his belt buckle. He took great pride in his name and his buckle.  

Sadly I can only rememebr two of his jokes: 

-"Hey mate, how are you going?"
-"Im putting one foot in front of the other!"

-"Hey mate, y'alright?"
-"Nah, I'm half left."
(I like that one quite a bit.)


Talk about travel experiences giving you a sense of perspective.