Monday, May 4, 2009

IRONY

=me....LOCATION = bus stop.
ACTION = thinking about what to have for dinner.
enter HIM.....homeless.....LOCATION = same bus stop.
ACTION = digging through the trashcan to locate something for dinner......
this homeless man i've seen many times on many occassions at this very bus stop.......
mostly sitting on the bench minding his own business....whatever that is......
staring off into his space.....never obtrusive.....mainly smelly.....and hungry.....
oftimes.....he's bent over the same trash can......FURIOUSLY digging for his food for the day.
TODAY- no different from any other when i've seen him here.....
but TODAY.....i pay attention......as does the man next to me.......
we stare as he digs furiously through the trash can to find
SOMETHING.....ANYTHING.....to eat...
which is ironic to me considering i was just mulling over the different possibilities
that lay in my refrigerator........
the look of DISGUST on people's faces....the people STANDING and SITTING around
at the same bus stop as I......and the HOMELESS guy.
THEY look at him w/DISGUST.....and i wonder WHY?
and i look at the man sitting next to me on the bench who is also transfixed on MR. HOMELESS
WONDERING if he shares the same thoughts.....
WHY do we turn away in disgust at homeless people?
BECAUSE they're HUNGRY......they're AGGRESSIVE....they're SMELLY.......
THEY'RE a REMINDER (in the this day and time of our economy) of what we could BECOME.
*maybe NOT to the extreme of digging through the trash can for our dinner*
BUT......in these times.......coupled with our "money mis-management"......
how many of US are so close to that? a PAYCHECK away? a LAYOFF away?
this economy has made us rethink and reprioritize!!!!
more IRONY as a mother of two walks up to the same bus stop
with her two small boys in tow......she looks down the street for the bus.......NOT COMING.
out of her purse..she pulls a bag of LAY'S POTATO CHIPS....PLAIN..... *i can tell
she hands the bag of chips to her two boys who FURIOUSLY dig to get their chips w/each bite.
the smiles on their faces as they taste the saltiness & crunch from the chip-
THIER DINNERTIME TREAT
the smile on HIS face (homeless man) as he strikes PAYDIRT
w/a half eaten bag of CHEESE PUFFS.....
the smile on HIS face as he tastes the cheddar & cruchiness from the puff-
HIS DINNERTIME/DESSERT TREAT
and the irony of the ping pong match of emotions as i swing my head back N' forth
between commuters smiling in glee at the two boys eating chips AND
the disgust in thier eyes at the HOMELESS MAN eating his cheese puffs.
IRONY......IN THE STATE OF THIS WORLD.