In this Journal, I will attempt to strip away my protective veneer to view and communicate honestly what the truth is as I perceive it. My intent is to grow, for without an honest evaluation of the truth, how else can one fully absorb life's more difficult lessons and benefit by them. If I do this in secret, then I am still hiding behind a protective veneer, so it is being published online. If you find this Journal, you are welcome to read it and hopefully grow from it as well.



Sunday, August 2, 2020

A Homeless Man

Yesterday evening, as I drove home with hot dinners for Anne and me in the trunk, I saw something unusual for this area.

It was a homeless man. He was laying face up, his upper torso raised, on a sidewalk at the entrance to a church parking lot.

I turned the car around and drove back to check on him to be sure he was okay, as I stopped next to him. He smiled and told me he was fine.

He was a black man, perhaps 60-years-of-age, maybe 5-foot, 6-inches tall and trim.

Ordinarily, this being dinner time, I would have offered to walk with him to a nearby restaurant to buy him dinner, which also would have allowed him to use the restaurant's restroom.

But with Anne's and my dinner in my trunk, I instead asked him if he needed some money, and he politely replied that he did. So I took a $20 bill and began to hand it to him.

But before he could reach it, I pulled it back, saying that I was sorry but because of the pandemic I would have to toss it to him.

He understood as I tossed the bill to him. But a breeze blew the bill to the edge of the busy street. He got up to get it, and I saw he was holding his pants up.

His rear end was bare and it occurred to me he might have been about to relieve himself [poop] when I arrived. Holding his pants up with one hand, he tried to pick up the bill.

But as his fingers got near, a breeze blew it onto the street. Fortunately, there were no cars speeding thru at that moment.

Yet as he got near the bill another breeze blew it onto the center median. When I left, he was on the median near where the bill lay, chasing that bill as if it was his lifeline.

I apologized to him for my thoughtlessness.

I could have parked my car and wearing a face-mask and gloves, set the money near him. I could even have taken a moment to learn his name and to wish him well.

Here was a hungry man in need of money, and there was a shopping center with restaurants and fast food next to the church.

But even in non-pandemic times, without money he would not be welcome. With money he could eat and use the restrooms, making that $20 bill a godsend.

What I'm about to tell you is unpleasant, and is based solely on my impression of this man's reality:

To relieve himself where he was would eventually be discovered by church personnel or the gardening crew and they would wash it into the storm drains abutting the street.

It may be disgusting to those with a home, apartment or trailer but he had to relieve himself in an area with no public restrooms.

Years ago, when my wife and I lived in a nearby beach city, I used to spend time with the homeless and buy them meals, as I learned their names. And along the beach there were public restrooms.

What I learned were many of them were so lonely for company and for respect and appreciative of those who sincerely cared. I will again do better than the way I treated this man.

This story is about one moment in this man's life, a life I know nothing about. He is but one of many thousands of people living on the streets in the Los Angeles area.

Many people believe they are better than homeless people, yet but for the grace of God go any one of us, and each of us would be in need of the kindness of strangers.

With Love To All - Dick
Note: This man was not wearing a face-mask which meant while he could order dinner from outside the restaurant, he could not come in to use the restroom, for in California, face-masks are required in all businesses. As a result of what happened, I now carry a fresh face-mask in my car for anyone in need of one.

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