15th August, 2009 - Murder!

I wonder what it would actually be like to have killed someone. Don’t worry. I am not going to put this question to the test. You can sleep safe in your bed. At least for tonight. Who knows, perhaps tomorrow my homicidal urges will get the better of me.

The reason that I ask the question, is that I saw an old guy walking down the road tonight. He was hailing a bus. He was wearing his old military skip cap and a few medals. I suppose that there’s a fair old chance that he was just an old eccentric (which of us doesn't want to wander around with a few medals in our old age), but equally there’s a good chance that he was actually in the military, and sixty years ago, he was somewhere in a European field, firing a gun at someone.

We live in great times, those of us in the UK who were born after the last war. Things have been largely peaceful. But even now there are still old guys, running for a bus in Tollcross, that have seen things that would make you weep. I imagine flagging down a bus must seem rather dreary to him, given the bloody adventures of his youth. Then again, perhaps he is glad of the peace and quiet.