Torn

I'm an avid people watcher and love to imagine what circumstances brought them to this moment.  Today I was in Arbys and the customer in front of me was an obvious street person.. extremely dirty.  He was buying one of the dollar burgers and I felt very sorry for him, enough that I almost offered to buy him a whole meal.  But fear of gaining his unwanted attention held me back.

I watched as he sat at a table in the middle of the room...and wondered uncomfortably if someone like him had recently sat in the chair I was presently sitting in.  He propped his feet up on a chair and, instead of eating what turned out to be just one of the many burgers and fries in front of him, spent most of his time scratching his head.  It gave me the creeps, even as I tried to think what awful life experiences made him what he was.  My mind switched from pity to repulsion, and then to dismay as he scratched away.  He really was one of the filthiest people I had ever seen.

A family picked up their meals and their little girl rushed right over to sit at the table next to him, totally oblivious to him.  Her family quickly redirected her to a table on the far side of the room.  He remained a pariah amid all the "normal" people in the room.

As I left the restaurant, I was still warring with the emotions he'd made me feel.  On one hand I felt tremendous pity for any human being who'd fallen so far and yet I still could never have made contact with him.  I know that's a true failure on my part as a human being but it is what it is.