Something like this shouldn't happen here.
I had a late dinner tonight. The only thing open downtown was the Wendy's. On the trip there I noticed a small white haired man huddled in a dark corner between two buildings. He looked about seventy. Who knows how old he is, though. Destitution, I'm sure, ages those afflicted. He looked utterly defeated. Kept quiet and just stared off into space.
I'm pretty jaded about the whole homeless thing here in San Francisco. It's incredibly bad. Most of them, in my eyes, are just lazy scammers who aren't interested in bettering themselves. Just living off the hard work of others. I tend to ignore them for the most part. Sometimes I will buy a meal for them. I never give them money.
I decided the second I laid eyes on him that I would buy a meal for him. A Wendy's meal(geez, I must secretly want to kill him). As I approached him I asked if he was hungry. He just glanced up at me with this forlorn look and knodded his head weakly. He took the meal and placed it next to him and just stared into my eyes. I could've have sworn he was tearing up. No response at all other than that.
It tore my heart out to look at this poor old man sitting alone huddled on a sidewalk. He deserves better than this in his twilight years. They say money can't buy happiness. Well, I tell you what...If I had money, nothing would make me happier than to take a man like that off the street and set him up in a home somewhere. A place where he could live out the rest of his days in peace without ever having to worry about the roof over his head or food on his table.
I know that's just a cop out, though. There's always something I could do for him and others like him. So, what's my problem? I'm just too godamned concerned about my own well being. I don't want to end up like him: broken and alone and living on the street. It's just fucking wrong.
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Here's a twisted way of housing this mortal coil in the afterlife - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4215923.stm. What as an artist would I like to be interred in? Hmm.
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Sketch: An hour each. I'm not happy at all with the study on the left. I like the one on the right despite some minor structural issues. More clothes. Must do more clothes.
posted by Brian @ 9:59 PM
3 Comments:
The problem with this country is that we're too competitive. If the nature of our society weren't so competitive, then individuals wouldn't feel such anxiety about having to keep up or ending up left behind. We're like a game of dodgeball (well, school house rules). Once you're out, you're out. Once you're out of money, you're screwed. I had a friend who worked in a casino and he said, when you deal cards, you totally see how money goes to money. When you have a lot of money, it's easy to get more. But when you don't, you're pretty much just waiting for the time when you're out of chips. In the U.S., we just don't have a sense of community, particularly in the big cities, so stragglers who can't "compete" aren't taken care of at all. Then there are the people who just give up on the system because it's too daunting, chosing not to work and run this race because it's a losing battle. For better or worse, it's this competition that's dulling our sense of humanity, and making it harder for us to trust and embrace our neighbor.
And meanwhile, in a land far far away, some village idiot threw himself a 40 million dollar party. But that's just an urban myth, right?
as always, both sketches look great! Do you know where I can get some freelance work, too? I draw a mean stick figure...
(I'm just kidding. I have no motor skills).
And he used "our" money to do it!
So wrong.
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