I am noticing a lot of people. Homeless people, in this case, and specifically I am noticing how they often walk across the street in the midle of the flow of traffic, stopping everything.
I have heard people say that it i because they are too drunk/high/mentally ill to notice when they cross the street.
But i think not.
I think it is a gesture, a gesture of their power, their power, thier tmporary political position, that they will stop the flow of society for just a minute, they, who have the power to affect little in their lives and less in the world at large, they, who are braver than most, perhaps due to their mental states, (drunk/high/mentally ill, for this is still also often true) and thus they take thier difficult lives into their hands and pull that shopping cart across 109 street at rush hour, while your coveted green light goes to yellow ten feet ahead.
They do this, not to annoy, (though yes, to annoy) but also as if to say:
"You will notice me now. now you will preserve my life. you will stop your car, for though you will not help me live, you also do not wish to be the one to kill me. you will stop and look, for i am here, i am here, I AM HERE."
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3 comments:
I like this post. It was like a well crafted story in blog form. hazzaa to the shopkeep! HAZZAA!
I have noticed this same thing. I like your theory. I have had many theories. Here is one -
They are pointing out the ridiculousness of our pace. We are sitting there, tapping away in our cars, cursing, turning the radio up and down, flipping cell phones open and shut, eyeing potential lane options and we look up and make eye contact and our urgency and destinations suddenly seem absurd. Where were we going? Chinese takeout? Manicure? Marketing meeting? What a ludicrous ratrace. This speed we are so self-righteously moving at is our own and it is bizarre. No one else needs to move at this speed. These dotted lines are our own, no one else needs to obey them. They can meander in and out of them all they'd like to, and when it comes right down to it we know that, we'll screech to a halt for human life. That alternate drum beat makes ours sound unnecessarily manic, our rows a little too neat, our polish a little too shiny. We clip, he staggers. So that we don't forget that we did all of this to ourselves.
I can't remember the other theories. I'll wait til I see a homeless man lurch out in front of a car and then hope i have something to jot it down into so I can perhaps post it onto my blog.
Crad - you have hit the nail on the head, and not the homeless person on the street. I wish more folks could see it this way
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