The Ghosts of Long Street

There is no inspiration in isolation.

In the Summer, Long Street is one of the most inspirational places in Cape Town.

Most of the time just sitting in its atmosphere lets words pour from my pen. I sit and look at the faces of passers-by and it’s almost as though I can read their thoughts.

Drunk tourists and drug-addled streetkids. Brainless Barbies and baby-weilding beggars. Falsely confident jocks on a night out from the suburbs. Blasé locals who’ve seen all the weirdness Town can throw at them.

Their energies wrap around each other – an invisible, omnipotent mist – and make the Street more than the sum of its different, often conflicting parts.

If one sits quietly and listens, the Street will speak to you.

It will tell you all the desires of those that have walked it. It will tell you stories of glory and triumph. It will tell you stories of desperation and recklessness.

If you allow your soul to open and truly listen you will learn more than any book or sage could relate about the human condition.

Our suffering and fleeting jubilation. Our struggles and sins and selfishness.

But also our honour and charity. Our loving kindness. Our empathy and compassion.

The Street will tell you tales. Fables of reflection that, once heard, will let you choose the person that you want to be. And leave behind the person that you are.

But most of all, Long Street will show you that you are not alone. Everyone is searching for the same things in life – companionship, trust, self-respect and happiness however brief. You are not alone.

This Street is the face of mankind’s soul.