Street Smarts

Walking home I paid careful attention to the goings on around me. A young girl, maybe 22 or 23, sitting under the blessed gift of God’s great sun wearing jeans, running shoes and a bandana begging for change and without a single seed of judgment I wondered where she’d be laying her head tonight. A little bit away, an Indian man, clearly intoxicated, stumbling his way to wherever it was he was going. At Spadina and Bloor, on one corner was the woman I’d seen every day for many years and I wondered how her daughter is; She must be about twelve now. On the corner opposite was “Hollywood,” still chasing his dream, to sell a pen to whomever is Marilyn or Dean this day. Each of these three people placed a thought in my head and a tear in my heart as I wonder how many people truly see them or merely walk by – Oblivious, kind of how they seem unaware of the war too. So I wonder, is willful ignorance and apathy human nature or is it something we learn?

SDM