I jest of course. I've also been watching The Vicar of Dibley. And The Royale Family.
Thankfully there are people out there that inspire and shake us out of our torpid stupor. One is this fella Ged King, a barber and owner of Manchester based salon Skullfades. I came across him at a panel session held by a marketing trade publication. To be precise, he is an ex-serviceman who found it really hard adapting to civilian life. Close to homelessness on four occasions, he decided to learn a trade. Before long he'd opened a boxing themed barbershop.Erm...I sense you feel. And? So?
Bear with, it gets better - although there is a lot to be said for those that drag themselves up from destitution to leadership - there is more to this than a bloke who started a cool-themed business. But I mean, really, that in itself is impressive. How many of us own businesses?...I thought so. So hush yo gums.
Finding himself in a good place and knowing what the flip side was like really like, he was experiencing an especially sensitive reaction to what he was seeing on the streets of his hometown. Scenes of misery and despair played out quietly on Manchester pavements under raggedy old blankets or those more propitious had sleeping bags. Symbols and remnants of a life once lived under roofs slowly caking over with the filth of exhaust fumes.
To put it in his own words: 'It broke my heart to see all these homeless people in my city as I cycled to work each day.' It broke his heart because he knew first hand the excruciating sting of loneliness, the slow degeneration of the mind and the gradual dehumanisation that resulted from living this reality day after day. So one fine morning he decided to come out on to the streets and try, if not to reverse, at least slow down the decent to hell for as many of these people as he could. And he did it by simply offering them a free haircut.
These pictures speak for themselves: All photos are courtesy of The Mancunian Tribe Community
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| Before and after |
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| The right to smile |
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| Feeling human |
Since that first outing his individual effort has grown into The Skullfades Foundation which seeks to help the most disadvantaged in the community - one haircut at a time. He now has a team of enthusiastic volunteers. My favourite anecdote tells of one homeless man who after receiving this life-changing haircut went on to train as a barber himself and now has a job and a home. That's what I'm talking about.
The initiative has also come to London and Ged recently visited the refugee area in Paris.
So when I find myself slipping into self-pity over how boring bourgeois is I think about people like Ged and those he helps and give myself a mental back-handed slap across my ungrateful face. And I think, what can I do? I know I can't be a foundation overnight, maybe never, but I can also help people 'one x (replace 'haircut' with what you can do) at a time'.
So I've made a list of things I can do well and I'm now looking at how I can contribute to society in a more meaningful and direct way. If you can afford to buy coffee everyday, you can probably afford to give up one evening a week to pay it forward.
My apologies to Gold TV channel - looks like I'll be watching a lot less of you this year.
