Today, I went to the supermarket early for some Christmas shopping. As I was coming out of the supermarket I saw the Big Issue seller standing in his usual spot. For those of you who are not UK based, "The Big Issue" is a magazine sold by homeless people to raise money for refuges. It's a very professional publication and the proceeds go to a worthy cause.

I had some loose change and so I decided to buy a copy. It was a £2 Christmas Bumper Edition. The vendor was a big cheery guy and asked me if I'd got a christmas card from him yet. I laughed and said I hadn't, at which point he delved into his rucksack and gave me a card. We stood in the Edinburgh rain and chatted for a while - had a wee blether as we say in Scotland - and then I wished him the season's best and went home to my wife and family.

When I opened his card there was a nice message from "Tony". It was a cheap card and it was obvious that he'd bought it himself - that just made me more impressed with his initiative.
Tony - who now has a name rather than being "the Big Issue seller" - made that little extra effort. On one level, it was an excellent piece of marketing - but it also cheered me up and made me feel good during the season of unalloyed greed, rampant consumerism and general tackiness (the holiday formerly known as Christmas).


  ¶ 9:37 pm