I love to shop. I love to buy clothes, feel cute. I don’t deserve the things I want, but I still buy them. At least, I used to. Now, my financial situation is a little different. Being unemployed and living off one salary makes shopping more difficult, pretty much impossible. Yet, my life is easy compared to many.
At home, I met people that had very little. But, they hid from view on back-roads, in the mountains, out of sight. In New York City, I see them every day in door frames, under park benches, beneath awnings, at subway stops, on Broadway with an empty cup beside them.
I pass people who are homeless as I walk to get groceries, mail a letter, substitute teach. To many New Yorkers, they’ve blended into the scenery, become a part of the cityscape. Once, I waited for the light to change and heard a rustle in the trash can beside me. I turned my head as an elderly woman rifled through the garbage in search of something. Food, clothes, newspapers, money. I don’t know, doesn’t matter.
A man sleeps at the corner of 76th and West End. Every night, rain or shine, he curls under a layer of dirty comforters. He bothered me at first, made me uncomfortable. I’ve never reached out to him, and I don’t know what to do except walk by him every night as I have since August. I have never done anything except eventually discount his presence. How sad, for both him and me.
Yesterday, Ben and I walked under an overpass to Riverside Park and passed two people sleeping on a makeshift bed constructed from crates. Their shopping cart of treasure rested close by.
Two blocks later I passed a boutique with fashionable clothes in the window and, once again, I wanted frivolous, unimportant things. I do not have the ability to see, truly see, the people around me. If I did, wouldn’t I help? Wouldn’t I let their presence affect me? Perhaps, that should be my New Year’s resolution.
Monday, January 14, 2008
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2 comments:
have you thought of doing a pictorial about the homeless???
one of the things i love and hate about the city is the people. i love seeing people and being with people and if i moved somewhere where i couldn't discourse with a diverse group, i think i would fade away.
the homeless situation is quite sad, and it's very difficult to think of how one can fall to such a situation, but it happens and sometimes to the undeserved. to me the question is, how do we help without endangering ourselves? giving money is easy, but in my mind, ultimately ineffective...
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