Writer's Block: Strange Conversations
A man I spoke with on a bus when I was on my way home from one of Bob Dylan’s concerts in Sweden. The man was talking a bit with another man on the bus and asked how old Dylan was. He didn’t know but I did and se we began talking about the night’s concert and it didn’t take long before we both realised that we both also had been on Dylan’s concert in Stockholm in the Globe. The man told me that he was a few years younger than Dylan himself and that he found it fascinating how both young and old people went to the concerts. He even showed me a couple of T-shirts he and bought for his grandchildren.
I told him that I agreed and then I said that for my eighteenth birthday me and dad had gone and seen the Rolling Stones when they were in Sweden. The man got tear eyed, said he was very glad to hear that, asked how old my dad is and then he asked me to take a message for him and tell him how amazing it is that Dylan and Stones can bring so many different people and generations together.
We continued talking about Dylan, his persona and music and the two concerts we had been to. He once again said something about how great it is that so many young people listen to Dylan and he talked about how he too used (or still did) play in a band that also played rock and folk music. He also said something about how he didn’t care about what Dylan had or have had in his trunk. According to him, everyone in the 60’s did. He also talked about how he and his wife had seen Dylan back in the 60’s. During this part of the conversation I said that this kind of music isn’t made anymore, that there is no one like Dylan but Dylan himself. The man looked like he was about to burst into tears and hug me. He was silent for a while to compose himself.
At the end of the conversation he told me and my date for the evening who had mostly been quiet during this whole conversation (may be because he didn’t really know anything about Dylan or his music before the concert) that he wished to tell us about what he considered to be the message of Dylan’s music. He said that this message always had been very important to him and that it had given him hope throughout his own life. He said that the message was that everyone should live in peace and acceptance. He said that he didn’t believe that it could happen and we agreed on that it probably isn’t in the human beings nature to be able to behave and think like that, but he said that it something that everyone should try to live after. He then bid me and my date a happy future and success with whatever we would choose to do with our lives. We had both arrived at our bus stop.
This conversation really made an impression on me. That night it felt as if something very big had happened to me. I very strongly feel that this conversation is just not one of the most interesting conversations I’ve had but also one of the most important once. In some ways this conversations made an even bigger impact on me than Dylan’s concert that night.