So what does it mean to be a swashbuckling vagabond eh?
The art of the vagabond
Day dreaming is perhaps the most empathic quality of the true vagabond. True is the vagabond who day-dreams often. You can measure your level of vagabondage by calculating the total amount of 'waking time' dedicated to bouts of day dreaming. In my case, I have tried and tested many combinations of possible work journeys. After a process much akin to Darwinian natural selection, I have settled for a journey that allows maximum day dreaming possibilities; a 20 min walk to the bus stop (through Ridley Road Market as the traders set up shop and the smell of fish mingles with the morning mist) followed by a comfy trip on the top deck of the 277.
Then there is work; about half of which is spent in deep reverie munching on wholesome thoughts. Lunch is obviously taken in fantasy land and the journey home too. Evenings are very rich with day dream pickings and dripping with big, fat, juicy day-dream berries that I devour whole and allow to dribble all over my cheeks.
This level of day dreaming activity probably places me on the upper echelons of the league of day dreamers. A true vagabond indeed! A Master vagabond.
So what does a swashbuckling vagabond dream about?
(sigh) Many things my dear friends. Many things. For when you have that much day dreaming time you can take liberties! - Well, a typical daydream journey for me to my local Kurdish off-license for a pint of semi-skimmed milk and a loaf of bread is an adventure indeed! - there is the 'hero' phase where one imagines oneself with super human powers; some sort of amazing ability that chicks really dig like being a wicked poet or having huge biceps; both equally effective with the cantankerous female variety.
Then there's the deep ponderings about the meaning of life and why most people are so inherently stupid. Man can be amazingly clever (microwaves, rockets, discovery of evolution, Nike trainers) but also really fucking stupid (like wars, and fighting, and racism and George Bush). I sometimes imagine being the sole person left on earth after a rather nasty alien invasion has wiped out the whole of humanity. All my friends included. However, If I'm in a good mood then humanity hasn't died but is waiting for me to rescue it from the clutches of death. Deep stuff indeed...
But there is a pattern. The true swashbuckling vagabond is really a rambler. Not only a methaporical rambler but also a rambler in the literal sense. He is not content with just rambling over the lush green of a perfectly done lawn. But also wants to sneak about the rough edges; poke around the bits that don't look so nice, where the grass is not so neat and not so green.
Most people I see on the streets are in a hurry. All they want to do is get from A to B. You can see it in the expressions of their creased faces; so serious, so adult, so grown up! - they have plans, things to do, places to go, gotta be here, gotta be there, must do this, must do that. Says who? On who's authority does it say you 'have' to do anything at all? Whereas, the rambler will take his time. Yes. You see time doesn't weigh as heavily on his shoulders. Oh no. He slows down. Looks around. Doesn't have anywhere to go to in particular. Doesn't have anything 'to do' at all really. But like a beacon in the swarm of ignoramuses, he lights the way to new possibilities, new experiences and new horizons. It's very simple you know. Life is. All you have to do is get lost in a Dulux® day dream ramble.
The day dreamer, the rambler, the swashbuckling vagabond are all but one of the same kind.
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