No matter how down I

October 30th 2002 at 5:28 pm

No matter how down I get, reading the Homeless Guy Blog always gives me a window into how much harder some other people have it.

What I find sad about reading the comments area in his journal are the people who feel it necesary to dump on this guy merely for his being homeless, with all their own bigoted preconceptions (if you have a blog why don’t you just get a job, they say).

*sigh*

When I was young there was a homeless rastafarian who lived on the beach in the harbor we were anchored in. He used to make good fish soup. The thing that impresses me now, in retrospect, was that when I visited him he would talk to me as an equal. Philosophy, the nature of life, and politics in Grenada. Half of which I didn’t understand, but I appreciated. It was one of the first things that led to me expecting everyone to treat me as an equal no matter my age or experience.

He also shared his food, and it is only now I realize how generous that was, though I never thought much of it at the time.

One day I showed up at his bamboo hut behind an old ruined stone building, and he was gone. Taken away for peddling, or smoking (I can’t remember the excuse), ganja. But the truth was probably simpler: the beach was near a somewhat prosperous hotel and group of cottages that catered to Western travelers and tourists. The last thing they needed on the beach was a homeless, dope-smoking rasta.

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