My revelation from the street...

After class today I decided to swing by the Catholic Bookstore, which is kind of out of my way, but I just had the sudden desire to go. On my way there I had my first encounter. Before turning onto the main highway, I slowed down and was stopped at a traffic light and like most people do, I began to take in my surroundings as I was halted there. I looked to my left and saw a nicely landscaped McDonald's fast food restaurant and in front of me a nice Honda Civic waiting for my same turn and then to my left...I saw it...or, him, rather. I laid my eyes upon a sleeping soul literally wrapped around the trunk of a small tree with his entire livelihood resting upon him in a multitude of grocery sacks and shredded backpacks. This man was homeless and fast asleep at 10am in the morning along a busy highway for all of the world to see and judge. Upon arriving to this stop on my way towards my destination, I had no joke seen two other homeless folk begging for money at the previous stop lights - them I thought nothing about. I figured they just wanted my hard earned money to go and blow on drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and the like. I impulsively looked down to avoid eye contact when they passed my nice new Toyota Celica that smelled of my nice deceased breakfast sandwich that was now resting in peace in my fulfilled stomach. I drove on and even burped with satisfaction. But, what was it about that sleeping man that got me so shaken up inside? What was it about that man that sent my guilt into a frenzy? Why couldn't I take my eyes off of this publicly slumbering stranger? Was it because he had no where to lay his restless head and settled for the softest piece of ground he could find? - I thought about my queen size oasis of a bed at home with my four plush pillows. Was is because he was hiding from the blinding and scorching sun under the only shade he could find? - I thought about my 3200 square foot house just the next suburb over and the state of the art ceiling fan my dad had just installed over my bed. Was it the humiliation that he must have felt partaking in one of the most intimate and private occurrences in a person's everyday life, SLEEP, all out in the open for everyone to see? - I thought of my over-sized room, with it's four walls painted the color of my choice, my window with an optional view of my entire street outside, that came and went with the pull of my blinds, and the solid door that led to the hallway when I unlocked it, turned the brass handle and opened it. Was it his nomadic house that went wherever he went, that sat wherever he sat, that got wet whenever he got wet, that got heavy whenever he got tired? - I thought of my multitude of belongings, especially those that I just had to have and once bought, retired to my museum of a bookshelf collecting blankets of dust. Was it the his shopping cart that was taken from a parking lot out of his own necessity? - I thought of my nice little Toyota and its spacious trunk space that could double with the fold of my back seats. Was it his hand on his aching leg that I could see trembling, even in sleep, from the restlessness of travel? - I again thought of my Toyota and the short distances I would drive it, places that would take 10 minutes to walk, out of extreme sloth and laziness. Then came the revelation.........to be completed soon!