In case Facebook hid this one from you: Im curious about people, #155 -- The face of the bundled-up homeless man, 20 January 2014 Along the path of my usual morning walk, I pass this housing facility for chronically homeless men. I’ve posted before that I’m curious about a man I often see, sitting on a bench outside the building (#127 The endurance of the homeless). The bench is under an overhang, facing in towards the building, and the man sits there wrapped up in his heavy jacket, knit cap, and scarf wrapped around his neck and face. I’ve never seen what his face looks like. This morning, I was climbing up the hill towards the corner that housing facility is on, the corner where I turn left and head back home. And there was this man, sweeping trash off the sidewalk. I thought, he looks like that man I see sitting there. And sure enough, I saw some of the man’s possessions there, on the bench. So I got a brief glimpse of what his face looks like, under the scarf. He’s black, with around dark face, maybe 35 or 40 years old. As I continued on my walk, I noticed how clean the sidewalk was there in front of the housing facility. I had an impulse to say to him, “Wow, good job.” But I didn’t say anything. I wonder why not? Was I afraid of sounding patronizing, the middle-class white person complementing a poor, homeless (except for the housing facility) African-American? Would he have welcomed a complement from me?
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 04:38:21 +0000
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