An Amazing Myspace Story - Vernon Reid
Friday, April 17, 2009
I had one of the best days of my life yesterday (Not as good as the day my daughter Idea Viola was born, but better than the day I got my Mac-Book Pro). This best-of-days is directly related to one of my worst, which was this past monday, April 13th.
I was supposed to start prep work for a guitar instructional video that I'm doing with Rock House. Plans were changed and I went to Manhattan instead to pay off a studio balance owed for a Masque session, & to return an item that I bought at the 14th street Guitar Center. After finishing business with the studio I made the Guitar Center exchange & made a stop in Williamsburg Brooklyn before returning home to North Shaolin aka St George Staten Island. I got out of my car, and realized to my HORROR that my wallet was gone. Vanished. Missing.
I raced back to Manhattan, my mind reeling-"Was I pick-pocketed? Did it fall out after I parked the car?! Did I lose it in the store?!! I called while I drove back & nobody saw anything! I went straight to the guitar counter & NO ONE saw it or tuned in anything. My heart sank. Feeling pretty much crushed I called Gabri (my wife) & told her what was up & she was great about it; all empathy & sympathy. She made the whole ordeal bearable. I drove home, terrified that I'd be pulled over without license, registration, or I.D. of any kind. She started, & I completed the process of canceling cards, contemplating spending time at the DMV and kicking myself over the whole mess.
On the 3rd day of this nightmare, I got messages from Gabri & Tim E (who set up my MySpace & Facebook sites) that there was a message from the person who FOUND MY WALLET!!!! I went to the mailbox & there he was- Darius Emmanuel Scheider - http://www.myspace.com/dariusscheider
The following is an excerpt of his letter to me-
hi vernon i'm a guitar player from Paris,just passin' through new york.
i found your wallet man and that just makes no sense but anyway i got it!
we've got to meet up man and i'll give you back what you own.
We met & had coffee yesterday in a little shop in the west village. It turns out that he's followed my career & was as astonished to find my wallet in Guitar Center, as I was in getting it back. The whole time that we spoke about meeting, I never asked him about the contents of the wallet, but as I walked out of the house, I threw a possible gift in the trunk of my car on the remote chance that the wallet was returned whole.
I got the wallet back complete with the $1.5K that was in it when it was lost & Darius has a new guitar -a greenburst Mojo Flame Parker-like this one+a Roland interface.
http://riley-music.com/Pics/GuitarGear/Parker-Fly-Mojo7.jpg
I learned a great lesson about mindfulness through this experience.
It's great when people really are at their best! I can't thank you enough Darius!
If it wasn't for MySpace, he never would have found me!
Have a great weekend,
Vernon
4 comments:
MySpace was the signal chain for Darius's honesty....which makes me feel a little better about humanity today. Thanks for sharing this story.
Nice story... It seems like there still are a lot of honest and nice people out there :-)
Haha, man.. a renewed belief that honesty is still alive? sure. But I'm going to be honest. If I found my guitar hero's wallet, I'd do the same thing... "allow me to return it to you" have a quick chat etc and be blown away by the op. Vernons the man though It was waaay good of you to give him that Parker, did he get a GI20 also? lol. The Goodness.
I just think that the both of you were blessed to have crossed each other's path. A double dipping, of sorts: your items were returned (and, perhaps more importantly, your heart caught a glimpse of humanity's smile) and his soul was inspired (had to be!). I reckon that's pretty cool. peace
Post a Comment