Just Passing By

I was sitting mindlessly in the car, waiting for the light to turn green when three elderly men caught my eye. All three were shabbily dressed, their hair graying from age and dirt. They carried plastic bags over their shoulders and unused ones hung by their back pockets. Two of them headed for the garbage can at the entrance of the public park. As one of them rummaged through the trash, another one waited, as if anticipating a treat. The third was a few feet away, distracted by something else.

The first man found a tall can of what looks like the energy drink - Monster. He shook the can and handed it to the other who was waiting. I thought they were merely looking for soda cans to sell to the junk shop and the first man handed the can to the other fella to deposit in the plastic bag where they kept their finds. But before I can say OMG, the second man turned away from the road and took a swig off of the Monster drink they retrieved directly from the trash. Instead of being grossed out, that brief scene moved me deeply.

All through my drive to work that morning, I thought about them. What unfortunate place did they come from that led them to that life? Homeless, aimless and spirits broken, those men found each other and decided to band together. What struck me most was how, in spite of poverty, there was still a show of generosity and selflessness. The man who found the can could have just as easily drank the remaining contents. After all, finders keepers, right? But no, he gave it to his friend and didn’t look a bit resentful.

Ahh, America, the proverbial land of milk and honey. How sad that inspite of the opportunities this country offers its citizens and immigrants, a significant population still lives in misery. Sadder still is the possibility that these men might have chosen to live this way, much like the parents of Jeanette Walls in her heartbreaking memoir “Glass Castle”. But that is a topic for another post.