This is not a big city, but there are a LOT of homeless people in Boston. And it must be really hard. I mean, it's cold, the people are mostly assholes. Even I don't reach into my bag to pull out a dollar for the man who regularly boards at Downtown Crossing asking for fare for the commuter rail. So, it's always confused me why the unsheltered population stays here, year-round, and particularly through the winter? I'm not totally ignorant, and I realize that homelessness happens everywhere, and that on top of that, being without means kind of screws up your winter vacation plans. But I think I'd start heading south. Like the birds, but on foot.
But... if everyone left, who would sing and give me compliments while I waited for the next train?
"Let me hold you tight
if only for one night
let me keep you near
to ease away your fear..."
I know this was a good song when Luther sang it, but when intoxicated Homeless Man #1 sang it, it sounded more like a strained punctuated version of a Luther classic. Painful. Fear-inducing. I'm just glad he wasn't trying to raise money. That would've been really funny because he was baaaad. Although, I'm glad the lyrics touched him...
Another man sat down next to me on a bench at the station and said he liked my purse. Yet another uncomfortable moment. Then he asked me where I was enrolled in school, and told me he'd gotten his PhD from Boston University (so... ix-nay on the PhD plan??). When the train pulled into the station, he followed me onto it from a different doorway... yeah. Discrete. This is why I keep my phone on 911 speed-dial. Turns out he wasn't stalking me. Maybe I could even learn something from his positivity/resilience/willful ignorance/insanity: he complimented the other T-riders even as the people sitting immediately to his right and left got up and moved away to avoid the smell (or the awkwardness of being in close proximity with something that makes us all a little uncomfortable).
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