I witnessed a traffic accident today and it cheered me up enormously. And not only me. It seemed to cheer up everybody else who stumbled across the pileup outside Manchester’s art gallery. I’ve never seen so many smiling faced since the Beijing Olympics, only these were genuine smiles. No botox was injected into any five year old’s cheeks. This was real pleasure, when strangers turn to look at you and their faces say so much. A few took photos and others cheered the arrival of the police. I just moved on. Happy to have witnessed such a sublime moment.
So, I’m sure I speak on behalf of everybody who was there when I thank the rich pin-stripe with the nice new Mercededes-Benz who so graciously ploughed it into the side of a Manchester tram this afternoon. I don’t know what he was thinking – the tram was hardly going to swerve out of the way – but it made my lunchtime, possibly my week, and the lunchtimes and weeks of a great many people who found that rarest of pleasures: a shared comfort in the misfortune of others.
