I Can See Clearly Now

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day.

Twenty five years ago, I was a bright eyed, bushy tailed graduate, applying for jobs at all of London's top advertising agencies.

Invariably, at some point during each of the hotly contested (and often bizarre) selection processes, I would be asked what my favourite ad was.

My answer was a Nescafe advertisement that was running in the cinemas (click here).

In it a girl drives up to a deserted beach in a VW Beetle (one of the coolest cars of all time).

She's alone, and looks like she's been through the wringer. She makes herself a cup of Nescafe, and clutches the mug in both hands as she watches the sun rise. She starts to smile.

It's set to the classic Johnny Nash track 'I Can See Clearly Now.'

What I loved about this sixty second vignette is that we know nothing about this girl. We don't know who she is, or what made her sad. We don't know what happens next. So we write our own story around it.

We become her; she becomes us.

Back then, it was clear to me that the heroine had just dumped her boyfriend who, it'd transpired, was a cad and a bounder. She knew she'd done the right thing, she could see that clearly now, but she was still mourning.

More recently, my memory of 'girl on cliff', and the Johnny Nash lyrics, have been completely entwined with my feelings about quitting drinking.

After all, years of drinking too much fills our world with dark clouds and rain, and it's only a few weeks after you quit that you find yourself seeing clearly. Only then do you start to believe you can make it to a bright, sunshiny future.

I think I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day.

Yesterday, as I was walking through the park with the faithful hound, I was listening to this track loud, on repeat. Because, after six weeks under a different, but very similar cloud, I'm starting to see clearly again.

It started to rain, but I was thinking...

Look all around, there's nothing but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothing but blue skies

It's gonna be a bright, sunshiny day, my friends.

SM x