Busking

So this busker who plays the banjo stopped me recently when he was getting off work. He let me know that he had worked enough that day, and that he was ready to go grocery shopping and return to his family.

I hadn't done anything for this man, so I wasn't expecting such a show of camaraderie. I wasn't expecting his family life to coincide with the Canadian Dream so precisely either. But I couldn't at this point let up, so I continued to ask him about his occupation.

He said that he makes about $100 per day. To put that into perspective, I make just about $80 per day. And that's only if I get called in.

All I would have had to do was learn an instrument, and I could have made my own hours, without any boss, and I would have been able to earn $20 an hour more, with no authority over me. And I could choose overtime if I wanted.

I should have learned the clarinet back in middle school, or the guitar from my grandfather, or even from my diatonic or chromatic harmonica when that was trending.