Home Sweet Homeless

Recently, I relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina. I don't care what you may or may not read in future posts at some of my friends blogs, it's not a bad place. As a matter of fact, it's the state capital!

Living here hasn't been a big adjustment, but I have noticed one thing that is very different in this city: the homeless people.

The homeless people I'm used to seeing (or stepping over) on the streets of the Big Apple don't do much. For the most part, whether its winter, spring, summer or fall, they put on every item of clothing they own and spend the day laying around in their own filth, securely in the city's gutters.

But in Raleigh, the homeless people are a little different. They are constantly in motion! If you've ever been here, you know what I mean: for people with out jobs, homes and any real responsibilities, they have a lot of shit to do.

Not only does being homeless around here seem to involve an awful lot of walking around, I think that they are also required to do that homeless limp-up-to-you-and-start-ever-interaction-with-"I-don't-mean-to-bother-you..."

As soon as they say it, I just want to blurt out "too late!" but, for a lot of reasons, I don't.

Yes, ONE of the reasons I don't shoot my mouth off is because I'm a pussy... But, even if they aren't crazy, they are homeless. Killing me could only improve their housing situation!

As you can probably imagine, by the time they've excused their interruption and gotten to asking for money, the shitty thoughts rattling around in my head make me feel pretty bad about myself... so I make the person that I'm with give them money.

Last time, after I guilted my brother into giving the man a dollar, I noticed that my brother told the guy to have a good day, and the man vehemently promised that he would.

Which I thought was weird, and a little self-important on my brother's part... For God's sake, it was a fuckin dollar! It's not like this guy's whole day is gonna be changed by this act of philanthropy.

"Well, I was getting ready to let another homeless guy fuck me in the ass to feed the drug addiction that's supposed to help me cope with these soul-crushing feelings of loneliness, but now - that's unnecessary! I've got this crispy new dollar to keep me company!"

I started thinking about the things it would take for this guy to really have a good day, and I'm pretty sure it would involve helping him re-acquire a place to live, some sense of purpose and his self-respect. Last time I checked, it's gonna be very hard to do all of that on a dollar.

But, on the plus side... this guy is homeless in Raleigh. I'm sure he's too busy to think about all of that stuff.