Simon Hewitt Jones - The Violin Blog

May

5

Once Upon A Time

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Once upon a time there was a boy who really liked buses. He really, really liked buses.

He loved the way they turned. He loved the way they parked. He loved the way they moved gracefully in the hands of the right driver.

As soon as the boy was old enough, he learnt how to drive, and started to work for the local bus companies when they needed an extra driver. He was very happy. He worked and worked and saved as much money as he could, and eventually - with some help from his friends - he managed to buy his very own bus. Now that he could work for himself, he started to build his own set of regular customers. Some of them gave him tips about his driving, some of them helped to maintain the bus on his days off, and some of them helped to spread the word and find him even more passengers. Many of his passengers became friends, and he was very grateful.

As the years passed, the man (for he was no longer a boy) got better and better at driving. Every few years he would trade up to an even bigger and more powerful bus. But the more he found out about how to handle powerful buses, the more the man felt that something wasn’t right with the roads.

Why didn’t the roads take into account the needs of modern driving? Why didn’t the people who fixed the roads talk to the people who made and ran the buses? What was the point in having such a nice bus if the roads weren’t advanced enough for him to use it properly? The more questions he asked, the more questions he found: Why were the traffic cameras not linked to the bus shelter timetables? Why didn’t the people who made jeeps and luxury cars swap ideas with the people who made the buses? Why didn’t the passengers get a say in what was happening?

After a while, the man realized that if he was going to get the best out of his bus, he was going to have to fight for the best roads he could find. But the thing was, he didn’t want to leave his roots. Sure, he could drive over to a country where they did have the most modern roads and the most sophisticated traffic systems. But then he’d have to leave his passengers, and all the experience and knowledge of the local area that he’d built up over the years. Besides, he loved his area so much that he couldn’t bear to see it get left behind whilst all the other countries bounded ahead.

Figuring that he wouldn’t be alone in his frustration, the man made a ridiculous decision. He was going to build his own roads. Everyone told him he was crazy, but the man thought otherwise: if he built new roads in his area, soon the other bus drivers would see what he was doing, and they’d start to build their own roads too. If they were good enough, soon all the drivers in the area would start building their own roads. Then the council would have to take notice and put up financing for all the new roads, and then the rest of the country would decide to switch to the new roads too!

The man’s regular passengers were divided. Half of them told him he was crazy, stupid and naive. "You start building your own roads" they said, "and we won’t travel on your bus again". "Fine." said the man, pulling over to let them off. He figured that if they really meant that, they probably didn’t appreciate his driving anyway.

The other half of his passengers - including his friends - said to the man: "What on earth are you doing? It seems crazy and we don’t understand it. But if you really believe it will work, we’ll help you try". The man saw they meant it, and was very happy.

The man started work on the new roads the very next day. But he was still young, and he hadn’t trained as a road-builder. And of course he had to drive his bus during the day, and keep it well maintained too. He ended up building roads during the night, so that he could be ready to drive his bus the next day.

As the man started to work on the new roads, he got very very excited. He started to see how amazing the new roads could be. They could have the latest technology to improve the bus ride even more than a more powerful bus could. They could incorporate some of the new discoveries that road builders in other countries had made… without affecting the local ‘identity’ of the roads. He was convinced that the roads would change the way the local bus services ran forever.

But because the man was a bus driver, and not a road-builder, he soon ran into problems. He didn’t have enough money to get the raw materials to build the roads, but he managed to win some sponsorship from a local company, who liked his ideas. However, although he knew how to manage a bus, he didn’t know how to manage a team of road builders! So by the time he had bought all the tarmac for the new roads, he didn’t have enough to pay the road builders, and the new roadbuilding came to a halt.

"I know," said the man, "I’ll put on a big bus fayre to raise some money". He thought it would be a good chance to show off the new roads, too. All the local passengers and bus drivers turned up, and they had a great day out. But because the new roads weren’t finished, they looked just like the old roads, and several people didn’t even realise they were using the new roads. Not only that, but the bus fayre had cost him far more than he had hoped for. The man was frustrated.

For the next year, the man realized that he couldn’t make the new roads happen just yet. He was sad, but he didn’t give up. He knew the new roads were good, and he knew that one day they would catch on. So he kept on honing his driving during the day, and tweaking his designs for the road at night.

As his plans for the road developed, he noticed that he was starting to drive in a way that would suit the new roads. A couple of his passengers started to comment that his driving was developing in a strange manner. They didn’t like it. They just wanted to get from A to B. "Don’t worry," said the man, "one day we’ll all be driving on the new roads. I’m just getting ready to make sure I can drive really well for when the new roads are finally finished". But some of his regular passengers didn’t like it, and some of them started drifting away.

The planning for the new roads was going very well, and the man had started to hear from bus drivers in other countries and other regions who were also working on similar ideas. He was excited - the ‘new roads’ had momentum! But because he had to pay for running his bus, he still didn’t have enough money to do all the work on the new roads that he’d like to do.

He knew that before long, he’d have to get the new roads out to a wider audience, otherwise nothing would happen. So he decided to put on a roadshow. For nearly three weeks, the man drove up and down the country talking to people about the new roads, and showing them all his ideas from an exhibition he had put up in his bus.

But almost nobody listened. Noone knew the man, and noone knew anything about him. Who was he to turn up and tell them about ‘new roads’ when they had perfectly good old ones? The man was starting to get worried. He had spent a lot of money on the new roads, and yet still he couldn’t make it work.

But the man wouldn’t give up. For a start, he knew his ideas were amazing. But also, the people who really had listened to the roadshow - just a few people in each city - had really loved it. Really, really loved it. He still had hope. Besides, his regular passengers from home (who had become friends) had sent him some beautiful messages of support. They still believed in him, and it gave him strength. Even though it hadn’t worked out this time, he decided to persevere.

The man went back home and started again on his work. Not long after, one of his regular passengers phoned. There was some interest in his new road designs from the council department who maintained the old roads! They didn’t completely understand the new roads, but they’d heard about them… and they really wanted him to come and work with them for a few months and see if he could help them improve the old roads with some of his ‘new road’ ideas!

The man was happy to hear this, and said he’d come straight away.

But as before, things didn’t quite work out as the man had hoped. The effort he had put into the new roads and the roadshow had taken its toll, and there was no money left once he had maintained his bus. He couldn’t pay any of the roadbuilders to bring the new road ideas to the council in time for their deadlines. And not only that, but the mechanic who usually kept his bus on the road was ill, and the man just couldn’t make anything happen.

By now, some of the man’s old passengers had drifted away, and although the bus companies he did freelance work for were still very supportive, he realized that without any more funding, he just couldn’t get any further with the new roads. But despite this, he was still hopeful. Some of the man’s best passengers and closest friends had really understood what was going on with the new roads, and they kept encouraging him. ‘Get through this’, they said, ‘and somehow you’ll find a way’.

And the man knew they were right. Because at the council, and at the bus companies, people were beginning to listen. He knew the new roads were good, and for all the pain and frustration and difficulties and challenges that had been thrown his way, his dream of driving his ideal bus along the most advanced roads in the world kept growing stronger and stronger.

So once again he gritted his teeth, got back in the driving seat, and went back to work.

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