Bums Gone Wild in Denver
Ingenuity, I discovered today, is the sole appreciable factor that will separate me from the last dollar in my wallet.
Denver is a big enough city that we have a notable homeless population. Street corners are often occupied by “Anything Helps” or “Father of 3” signs attached to downward looking souls. I am generally an advocate of the idea that giving them ‘a buck’ may relieve the temporary ache in their tummy but won’t find them housing, jobs or dignity. I normally pass by with only a wave. Today I saw a sight that brightened my day and, indeed, parted me with the last dollar in my wallet. ”Bums Gone Wild” caught me by surprise. I was driving down the 6th Avenue in Denver near Broadway - a heavily trafficked intersection - and when the light turned red a small group of harried homeless men started doing a ridiculous line dance. It wasn’t the variety that you’d catch at the country roundup club down the road - it was of the variety that high schoolers do during a pep rally. Tummy Rub… Hop in a circle… Jump twice to the left, twice to the right… It wasn’t long before the “come hither” alert of car horns began beeping all around me. A typical situation leaves drivers in an awkward spot of avoiding eye contact - today, dollars waved from windows all around me and I rolled mine down too.
I had just begun a small discourse to my wife about ‘why don’t more people have the foresight to be proactive and….’ and at the very next corner was a homeless man in a wheel chair whose sign read “Had a stroke, can’t work”. At least I had the smile for a whole city block.
