This photo is from 3 days ago.
The film at the end of this post is from 3 years ago.
I took the photo while I was walking along Rye Lane in Peckham, South London. Rye Lane was the nearest big shopping area to where I grew up. And I had gone back to meet my brother for lunch. So there was a lot of nostalgia going on.
After lunch - in a groovy Malaysian pop-up style restaurant (didn’t have that back in the day) – I walked along The Lane and was reminiscing about how it had all changed and there, on the pavement, was a sign that was starting to deteriorate.
I smiled to myself.
Yes, it felt good. This instruction that dominated all our lives only three years ago had clearly lost its power. There’s that saying, isn’t there. ‘The writing’s on the wall’. Well, in this case it’s gone a bit Michael Jackson. It’s off the wall. It’s on the pavement.
We’ve come a long way. And that’s good.
2020 seems longer than three years ago.
Since then we’ve lived a lot of life. Learned a lot of things. Been through times when it feels like the world has had the ‘Fast Forward’ button permanently pressed down. And now we’re out the other side.
It’s easy to forget what things were like. Maybe it’s easy to forget because the alternative is remembering. And do we really want to do that?
I bring this all up because the next film in the schedule is a cracker.
It’s ‘The Puzzle’ featuring Benji Dotan.
Prior to this morning, I hadn’t watched it in a couple of years. So I clicked ‘play’ just to remind myself what I would be writing about.
It floored me.
I thought I knew what it was about. But I didn’t. I’d forgotten. And the coincidence of what it is about, and what I’d seen in Peckham a few days ago, is powerful.
Even what Benji is wearing in the film resonates.
And it’s a beautiful performance. There’s humour, and resilience, and vulnerability in there. There’s also regret, because how could there not be?
Life stopped. Lives stopped.
So it’s good to be out the other side. It’s good to walk towards the brighter skies. But it’s also good to remember too.
In fact, it might even be important.
Here’s ‘The Puzzle’ featuring Benji Dotan: