Friday, September 27, 2013

Wisdom on the street

On a lazy saturday morning, while waiting for companions for an out of town voters education engagement. I saw an old man on the other side of the street. He was thin, cruffy, dirty, and carrying a dirty old bag of what must probably be his meager belongings. He sat on an obscure corner of the park... just sat there looking curiously at passersby. Seems oblivious to the world around him. People were avoiding him as if he was infected with the plague or something... He wasn't even asking for anything, just sat there, staring blankly at people. Maybe he was hungry or was waiting for somebody to give him something. Found myself crossing the street and while enjoying my morning puff of "vitamin c", I decided to strike a conversation with the  man. I can see his apprehension at first, maybe he was wondering why another old man would come up to him asking all sorts of stupid questions. He just stared blankly at me. I asked him from where he was to which there was no answer. Asked him again and this time started blabbing incoherent words.I just stood there trying to make sense of what he was saying and while looking at him intently, I noticed the lines on his face and callouses on his hands. Telltale signs that this man must have been a worker during his younger days, he had strong looking shoulders that has seen better days and he must have been mid sixtyish or something. Asked if he still has family nearby and all he said was they live from afar... asked him why he chose not to be with his family and his answer startled me. He said that this world has no room for people like him and that he was better off wandering in the streets... kinda ordinary, but the next really was a surprise. He says that he sees love on the streets everyday and he feels it all around him despite being spat on, heckled and looked down upon by people. He says there is still good in people despite their humanity and that he would be happy if people were a lot less complicated... I cant believe for the life of me hearing that from the old man... night came, and on my way home, what he said lingered on in my mind till i was about to go to bed. surely, that was somebody else speaking to me that morning and was so profuse with thanks for that day's dose of wisdom 101. Now, who says nothing good can come out of the streets, there was and lucky me, I just found one... 

Happy weekend y'all!!! PEACE!