Two stories: (i will leave them without my usual trying interpretation and just leave them as experiences...for now)Similar circumstances, but totally different. Two guys down on their luck on the street.
Yesterday: it was a fairly sunny Mid afternoon. Compared to all the fog that we have had. Though the sun was out a bit it was still cold, and i walked quickly up Commercial Drive to the pottery studio. There was a guy in a wheelchair asking for money. His Name was Randy. I said i didn't have any but i stopped walking and asked him how his day had been going. he told me how he was cold and today had been not so good for busking--He hadn't got a thing since the small cup of coffee early in the morning; A couple days ago he had been hit by a car--he was fine but it had damaged his wheel chair and it was going to take a bunch of paperwork or money to get it working well again...and a couple other rough events he mentioned. I stood there and listened nodding at appropriate times, and then he said "...but what about you? you seem to be in a good mood?" Then i got to say how some friends and i had been talking to guy guy who we knew and hadn't seen in a while and he told us that his recovery was a tough road to pull but that he felt encouraged to continue, the sun was a bit brighter today than yesterday and that i saw one of the first signs of spring peeking out of the dirt just down the road." Randy smiled and held out his hand. As we shook hands he thanked me for sharing, "...your bits of joy have encouraged me for this moment."
i turned to walk away, a bit slower this time even though it was still cold. I wonder to myself...what lasting change does an encounter like this have on the world at large.. but i know i am asking the wrong question. For one moment one man in a wheelchair that had been being passed by and written off all day, felt a sense of worth and dignity--even for a moment.
Today: i was coming out of a thrift store on the far east end of Hastings street. Today unlike yesterday (or the past two weeks really) the sun was all the way out and warming our faces. I had walked all the way to the store on the sunny side of the street just to make sure i caught as much of the sun's warmth as a could. Having found what i had been looking for made me even more happy to go home and show the others in the community. HE was sitting there against the wall and had just heard me tell another lady who asked for money and hurried on by, that i didn't have money to hand out, but he asked anyway. when i said the same to him, he went off yelling about how he knew my type i was the type that had thousands of dollars saved up for only me and i was the type to get fancy education and go guild to make millions more and buy things on credit cards. I stood there listening, "...and I've never had a credit card before! all i have is a hard slab of cold cement and ..." he ranted for a minute or so about his lack of money interspersed with some colorful language, all of which he said in such a loud voice that i am sure everyone on the block could hear. I finally said "Look there are more useful things in the world than money--like friends, and right now your yelling is making it really difficult for me to even want to be your friend..." waving his hand at me as if swiping away a pesky fly he shouted louder than the rest of his ranting "Aaww, F** off!"
I said OK and walked away.
As i walked away i thought there is something ironic about being told to F** off on such a beautiful warm day. Some people have a hard time seeing the sun even when it is in their face.
Just another day's work in the life of the DownTown EastSide...
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