The path of the free spirit

Speakers corner from Diabolus Dei on Vimeo.

The best opening this blog had!!  So far…The continuation surely will prove disappointing again, but still, you might…

dig in. It's a short video taken almost three years ago on our first - and brief - trip to London. Obviously it was taken at Speaker's corner in Hyde Park.

There is an American - surely he must be - bloke giving everyone a piece of his mind. Maybe that’s why he doesn't have any: he gave it all away. Anyways, I don't care about him, I am more interested in the bearded man who calls God a lazy – and illiterate - bastard and who goes berserk every time he hears "will" and "free" in the same sentence. I know it’s obvious that will is free, we all saw it being freed in Free Willy then over and over again in Free Willy 2 and 3 and so on.  I kind of liked that guy back then when we were shooting the video and every time I watched it since. I thought of him as a well taught man, a free spirit who has a well definite opinion about the world and he sticks by it with any means. A free spirit, a modern Don Quixote, who sometimes stops at the corner in his spare time to fight of the evil windmills that are twisting the minds of unsuspecting bystanders.

Three years passed and yesterday we run into the very same man, it took me one glance to recognize him and to see that he’s … a bit changed since the last time we saw him. It’s like he wears the same clothes since then and he presents all the signs of a genuine…bum. He still frequents the same places though, as this meeting occurred on Edgware Road, just minutes away from Hyde Park and the Speakers’ Corner. By the time he treats himself with a coffee left on a Starbucks table I remember that I have a phone with a camera so I yank it out and start shooting like a paparazzi.

 The first shot is a little vague, I catch him in the shadow but I nail him as he checks out one phone boot after another searching for...I don't know what, coins maybe. 

We don’t have time to follow him around any more but as we pull away in the opposite direction I can’t help but thinking: is this the path of everyone who had experienced will and freedom? Do all free spirits end up this way? Unable to fit, to conform, unable or – more likely – unwilling. Of course, he could easily be an eccentric artist or college professor who wants to assimilate to perfection this way of life, the life of a street philosopher. Or maybe he is just a big mouthed bum. Maybe I am a big mouthed bum as well. Maybe we all are. Damn

Metallica - Free speech for the from Diabolus Dei on Vimeo.