- THE PROMINENCE OF THE PENCIL WIZARD
Robyn was my art teacher at college, a man with a pleasantly, creative face, although his beard didn't care & was all over the place
Robyn was my art teacher at college and at every college do, he very often loved to waltz with a whiskey.
Somewhere between peace protester and a pencil wizard was Robyn
It was on just such a college occasion that he smiled at me whiskey in hand and so a song and ritual began,
The song signified something else it was sit down by James & every year without fail at every college party a circle would form with me in the middle and Robyn at the helm nodding merrily to me. At the time I felt quite awkward being the centre of attention, it's not what I like. I also wondered at first if this was a bit of sarcasm being a wheelchair user. That was squashed & changed quickly though when I began to realize what it really was. This a modern update on the oaky cokey was a simple and genuine heart warmed attempt at empathy. To say, mate, you are not this, we enjoy your company. Everyone in that room reaching for empathy through a song. .
A few years later the crazy thing was one of my disabled friends said the same thing happened to him at every college do as well, same song & same routine, whatever it was possibly maybe a generational thing, a disability rousing anthem, or just something very strange, I think now looking back it was a brilliant gesture. A gesture symbolic of life we are alone but somehow we're also together.
“ Those who feel the breath of sadness sit-down next to me.”
“ Those who feel they're touched by madness sit-down next to me.”
Sit down by James