The Story of the Orange Jacket ;-)

One day, when the winter was coming, I had to buy myself a new jacket. And an orange one caught my eye.

I've never been too much of a fashion guy, so I asked my then very close friend for some advice. Her hair were orange at the time, so she had no doubt my new jacket and the colour on her head would match perfectly.

I've never been comfortable with wearing any other colour than navy blue, grey or black. It looked as if I was standing out from the crowd too much in an orange jacket. I felt not very safe with that.

One night while I was going home some not nicely looking guy was rudely smoking in the back of the tram. I was very angry about that, because breaking some very basic rules by someone often makes me angry. And it was only me and him in the tram. But... my orange jacket... If I did something wrong, I could be easily recognised either by the guy, seeking revenge, or by the authorities.

Many months later, in a different city, two young drunk guys started to play a very loud rap music on another tram. I told them they should stop that, maybe not in the politest way. They started to shout at me. And yeah... knowing about the cameras on the tram and my orange jacket... again... But then a security officer stood up out of nowhere, with another one behind him (I guess they didn't know each other) and told those youngsters to behave.

Another town. I had to walk a mile from a bus stop to my workplace. Just then it started to rain cats and dogs. The moment I reached my work my orange jacket was soaking wet, and I had to leave it to dry until the end of my shift.

But in an hour a friend came to me, nicely yelling at me that she saw me walking in my orange jacket in this heavy rain, but just had no safe place to stop her car and pick me up.

In another hour exactly the same story repeated with another lady.

Another day I went to my volunteering activities and suddenly a guy from the other side of the street started to wave hands and yell hello to me. It turned out to be one of my funniest co-workers. He recognised me from far away by... my orange jacket, and we had some nice off-job chat. I had no idea he was living on the same street.

The bottom line is: maybe that is worth sometimes to wear an orange jacket?

The world can be full of dirt, scum, greys, hatred or injustice. But it can also be a pure magic!

It all depends what you wanted to see...