With the rise of America as the world's most prosperous Banana Republic, New York has begun to once again challenge Santa Monica, California as "the home of the homeless." During a long walk on the upper west side, I was accosted twice by aggressive beggars and once by a bicycle-rickshaw driver. One homeless man I ignored said my lack of charity was the reason the Twin Towers were felled.
This morning I had an early appointment at the cavernous Apple Store on Fifth and 59th. I was done soon enough to allow me to walk the mile or so to work and still get in earlier than the rats which inhabit the joint. In front of 48th and Fifth was a gnarled and beaten looking panhandler with a sign that read: "Dwellingly Challenged." His copywriting skill earned him a dollar from me.
Good writing works. Even if it's written on a ratty old square of corrugation.
I was walking past my apartment in Chicago and a man grunted at me "hey man you want to help me out and buy a ticket to me and my brother's basketball game?" I said no, because I saw him use a different pitch to minutes before. His tone quickly changed and he called me a flurry of expletives and said some unsavory words about the way I was raised.
ReplyDeleteEarlier that day I gave money to someone who said, "hell young white man, to help a black man out?" It felt more earnest. Not quite as good as dwellngly challenged. But a hell of a lot better than anger.
today a woman rang at my door and asked for a cigarette. i gave her five. i have seen her trying around before. she will come back on sunday and try to sell me something crocheted. beautiful or ugly, i will buy it and say thank you respectfully.
ReplyDelete