GeoffBrady

Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck.

Someone had left a penny on a cash machine, so I picked it up. I was looking for something that I feared I might not find, so I thought I could use the extra luck.

In short, it was crap. I couldn’t find what I was looking for, and I couldn’t find anything I wanted. Then I received a text message which put me in a bad mood. Hypocrisy does not meet me well.

I almost did something illegal today. I couldn’t believe all the things that this penny brought me, after its promise of better things to come. So I nearly threw it in the bin, in the hope no-one else felt its wrath. But I put it in a charity box. I’m wondering whether I should feel guilty. I saved the fate of a penny and put its tiny worth into the hands of a good cause (which cause, however, remains unknown to me); yet I may have condemned some poor unfortunates to yet more misery.

I bought this week’s The Big Issue, it’s a mental health special. It was also the vendor’s last copy: a fact in which he had great pleasure sharing with me. He could go and get something to eat. I started reading it and the magazine is just oozing with frightening statistics. One in four will suffer from some sort of mental illness at some point. Furthermore, one article was written by someone who realised in her mid-thirties that she had been suffering from some sort of depression since she was five. It was also very damning of the government’s contribution to the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. It’s worth a read, especially if you feel inclined to moan about something a little different from the usual fuel prices, family matters and the weather.