All we need is a little more love

by Camilo Mota (Brazil)

I didn't expect to find Brazil

Once, after I had moved to the most populous city in Brazil, São Paulo, I went to Paulista Avenue in an academic work, a place where day after day, thousands of realities cross over, hoping to find some story to capture. Especially because Paulista is a multi cultural epicentre of the city. There are lots of market people, mainly moved from Latin America, too many coffee shops, stores and people from everywhere, which one with its beauty and story. So, I took a bus near my house and I went downtown without any idea of what to do, and I got off the bus in a stop at the beginning of Paulista, trying to find something interesting. In a dark, cold and rainy afternoon, where hundreds of thousands of people walk everyday, busy, stressed and who won’t stop even for a bit to see the details, I was walking along the avenue, when one gathering got my attention. Five people, all homeless folk, with simple clothes and shy grins, were performing to, at least, be able to have a meal that day. With a sign in front of them written “Perhaps will I have lunch?”, the 5 musicians were showing their diversified repertory from the band The Animals to the Brazilian icon Raul Seixas, singing for those willing to see them. I was there catching every single detail and listening to them. Although, while presenting and receiving some coins and also coffee offered by an elderly lady that gave them voluntarily, another man, also homeless, just with a striped shirt and yellow shorts, and also wearing a plastic raincoat to protect him from the rain, got closer. A little bit shy and without anything material to offer, he started watching them. And a few instants later, he were already dancing and clapping… What I DIDN’T EXPECT TO FIND was him, celebrating the moment with such joy, even for nothing. The wind was heavy and the raindrops freezing. Too many walked along the avenue. Only some people stayed until the end of the presentation. Meanwhile, the man, without a home or a voice and with nothing to lose, kept enjoying his moment, with sparkles in the eyes, having some fun. Due to all that excitement, one guy even came forward to take a selfie with the old man. One couple also started dancing and hugging him, singing and sharing smiles for them and I, made the cold disperse and them became happy. And Between exchanges of looks and smiles, the attraction brought more and more people around him, whom, even with the discrepant social inequality, stripped out of their ego, showing that what really matters, is the love and humbleness given to whomever it is.