Faith and Coffee

I and a couple others were having coffee at the Red Eye and, as per usual, discussing everything that could possibly pass through the heads of four adults blessed with ADD... We covered food, funny smells, Scientology, street people, toe nail clippings, faith, and the condition of the districts on or near the Saginaw river.

In one of the topic swings, the Rev. Sarah Fosatti made an interesting observation:

"It used to be that you were martyred. Now, You go on South Park."

Detours

A lot of my friends date a lot of losers because they haven't learned yet that life is too short to spend it beating around anybody else's bush.
SPM

Mrs. Leonard

People bounce back from most things, I said, but every time they're stretched they bounce back a little less so it's no wonder you have to surprise a smile out of old people.
SPM

To see. To not see. To see and react. Or not.

"You can hold back from the suffering of the world. You have free permission to do so and so it is in accordance with your nature. But perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could have avoided." KAFKA

Grown-ups

She said one of the great beauties of being a grown-up was that you could eat chocolate cake for dinner as often as you liked. I though about it for a minute and decided I still liked curling up with someone after a long day and that being kissed goodnight wasn't so bad, either, and she agreed.
SPM

Denial

I've heard over and over that ignorance is bliss, he said, but I think denial is almost as good.
SPM

The Borrowers in Barely Living Color

I have often wondered if “The Borrowers” wasn’t based upon the street folk of an inner city neighborhood. . . They are not all homeless. They are not all hungry. But they all have needs they feel they may share with us. Why? Ah. Yes. That’s it: They’ve noticed we are also human and hope we act accordingly. . .

She used to stand on the corner of Warren and Thompson in our front yard attempting to add to her “client list.” Her nose was a little too wide, her eye make up a little too un-natural, her clothing a little too home-schooler mom and her hair. . . well it was a combo of two very different weaves:

The main article was black and consisted of braids and dreads tucked every which way and the secondary layer was a peroxide blonde streak that started at the top of the back of her head and ran down from there to her shoulders like a paint spill or yellow skunk stripe. The whole thing was most fearfully and wonderfully glued, oiled and tucked into a cohesive mass that resembled something Raquel Welch might have used to conceal her pink bits in One Million B.C.

She wore a variety of baggy T-shirts under a variety of loose coats and – always – a sidewalk-length denim skirt that she would slowly roll up toward passing cars while yelling: “Pokes for the Lady!!?”

Eventually the Gang Task Force began hassling her and she was in need to move on from our corner. So she was sharply questioned (*not* by the Gang Task Force) as to whether she was in business out of need, or out of interest in her work. When she stated the latter, she was taken to Victoria Secret to get fitted for proper under garments and have her colors done to get her into appropriate cosmetics. Then on to Lave Bryant to open a charge account for clothing better suited to her build and line of work.

Today she works out of a house that she is buying in a much “better” neighborhood with the help of a few regular clients. We called her the Ugly Hooker, and – though we would have preferred a planting of petunias around a birdbath or sundial, she *did* lend interest to our corner. Sometimes we look out the window toward the corner and cannot help but miss her. . .

The Ugly Hooker. The Dead Baby Doll Lady. The Angry Veteran. Charlotte (who melted all over Tom’s counter). Old Lady Who Scowls. Man Who Says He Needs Milk Money For Kids He Does Not Have. Lady Trying To Get To Bay City.

The people that live on our streets know need better than any pastor, and they touch us at a shared need in a way that sometimes feels akin to a nerve suddenly heard from in a dentist’s chair. We all have a need to be sheltered. To be fed. To be noticed. To be loved. They are no needier than we are, our street people, not really. They are just more honest. SPM