Profound thought for the Task
The greatest catalyst for change in a relationship is complete acceptance of your partner as s/he is without needing to judge or change them in any way. That immediately takes you beyond ego.
– Eckhart Tolle
The Task: Pick a letter and a number between 1 and 5 (n). Now look at the road index of your home town under that letter. Find the nth road in the list, then really go to that road and see what happens.
The idea behind this task was great, I thought. The thought that a random pick of a local road might lead to a new discovery or a new adventure. Or something significant or life-changing might happen when I go to visit my random road.
The reality, unfortunately this time, was a little disappointing.
I chose the letter G, and the number 3. I live in Worthing, and fortunately I had an old town map with all the roads listed on the back. When I looked at the fourth G road on the map, it was a tiny cul-de-sac, and the Street-View of it revealed it to be just the garages at the backs of houses. I didn’t think this would be exciting enough for a visit. But then I realised that the wording on the task meant that I could choose the 3rd ROAD in the list. So this meant I could skip all the avenues, and ways, and closes, and streets, and crescents etc, and just pick the 3rd actual road.
The 3rd actual road was called Gannon Rd. I’d never heard of it, and don’t know who or what a Gannon is. I rode over to see it on a sunny weekday afternoon. It’s a residential street with a mix of lower middle-class semi-detached houses, which runs north/south and just one block from the beach. It has absolutely no discernable character or interest in all it’s 100 metre or so length, so I was really hoping something would happen for me to report.
Walking up and down the road, reminded me a a school homework project I was once set when I was about 13 years old. The teacher Mr Brown told us to go and describe a local street in as much detail as possible. I can’t remember what lesson this was for – it wasn’t English – so perhaps it was for socialogy or some other non-subject. Anyway, the street I chose was in the light-industrial estate near my house, and was quiet in the evening which meant I could go about my homework making notes without being seen or interrupted.
I found it difficult to be be enthused about my homework, or write anything interesting about the street, even though it was full of small factories and businesses. I ended-up just documenting facts, for example the number of lamp-posts, the cars and vans parked there, and the quality of the tarmac etc. When Mr. Brown read my report, he was most interested in my observation that there were 14 drains on one side of the road, and only one drain on the other. “I wonder why that is?”, he asked me. “Perhaps because it slopes one way”, I replied. He just nodded and seemed satisfied with my reply, although sometime afterwards I wondered if there was something more deep and meaningful I should have thought about, because he only gave me a C-minus for my report.
Anmyway, back to Gannon Roard, and these same thoughts came into my head. Should I be counting the drains and the lampposts? No, I should just walk up and down a few times, observe, and wait for something to happen. There were nobody about, and no-one bump-innable along the pavement, so there was no chance of a fascinating meeting or an interesting anecdote to share from an eccentric local. A few of the houses had workmen in the gardens, but I didn’t want to interrupt them, and I didn’t want to knock on anyone’s doors to see how friendly the neighbourhood might be. I mean it looked like it could be friendly, but it’s no longer the 1950’s when people might ask a stranger to come in and have a cuppa and a chat.
As nothing was occuring, I had to find something to report, and I can now say that the most interesting thing about Gannon Road is that the Sussex Accordion Academy of Music is at No.24. It seems that the tutor who lives here, Gennaro Fiondella, is an accomplished Accordion player, and he offers Accordian Theory / Composition / Keyboard / Arranging / Singing / and Repairs. He is also available for Accordion Solos / Duet / Group / Band & Orchestra. He has many letters after his name – A.B.C.A (T.D) L.B.C.A. Obviously I don’t know what these mean, but I bet some of the A’s are Accordion.
The notice on wall of No. 24 lists many other Accordion & Piano-related activities that Signor Fiondella is involved with, and that’s good. Because it really makes the whole Gannon Rd a bit more interesting. It sort of elevates the whole dismal visit into a sort of C-plus, or even a B-minus type of homework event.
The greatest catalyst for interest in a street is complete acceptance of it without needing to judge or change it in any way. That immediately takes you beyond Worthing.
