A Christmas Carol: The Clochard and the King

Historically Paris is a city of Kings and Clochards. If you were born in a palace, that is where you would live your life, without even ever noticing the man in the street, who was destined to stay there his whole life. Until there was the French revolution to shake things up to try and make life a little bit fairer. Obviously, to this day we are still far from an equal and fair world. Even though progress is often not a straight upward line, and perfection may be an unattainable goal, the world has changed since the time of the clochard and the king. At the moment, there is a lot to fight for if we not only want to keep what has been achieved but avoid losing a lot of the things many of us, in our part of the world, have taken for granted like safety, peace, rights, and wealth. The current state of the world can feel very overwhelming. A personal struggle, I´m sure many people will recognize, is making the idea of what is means to contribute too big. And because of this refraining from acting and making decisions.

In French literature, Voltaire’s Caracter Candide, is brought up with the idea “We live in the best of all possible worlds.” When events in his life force him to go out into the world and see this for himself, his final conclusion, after a long journey through different parts of the earth, is: All is not for the best, and we don’t live in the best possible world. But we must cultivate our backyard. Now this is where it gets interesting. Because how will you interpret this? It can either be an encouragement to look for the little things in your direct environment that you can do to make the world around you a little better. Or encouragement to become very protective of what you have and always be afraid someone or something might take it from you. A third interpretation is that the things we do here DO have an impact on other places in the world. For example, when it comes to climate change.

Although the word clochard is outdated, les sans-abri (without roof) o SDF (San Domicile Fixe, without permanent residence) are very present everywhere in the streets of Paris. This has been a daily reminder for me, to instead of watching the news and social media and then ‘wanting to save the world, but failing to act’, start by keeping my eyes open for the people around me. Once you see this, you will also see the heartwarming initiatives to help people in need in Paris. Like the organization ‘Resto du Coeur’ that collects and provides food and supplies for people who cannot afford them. Or an event organized by an expat group I joined in my first weeks in Paris, where we collected groceries and warm clothes, and with a small group of people went out into the streets looking for people who needed them.

Experiences like this make you wonder who you will be if you end up losing everything. Will you be the one that receives help but always asks for more? Or one that builds a complete living room underneath a bridge with all the things they find and considers everybody their friend? It is a lesson in gratitude and happiness. A king who always wants more is a poor man, a clochard that makes the most of what he´s got and shares it, is a rich man.