Life Lessons

A few months ago, a homeless guy in a quirky top hat set up shop @ the corner of Hollywood and La Brea. This is on my way to the gym. Every morning for a week, there he was sitting at the bus stop with a sign in tow, showing it fervently to all the cars that passed. This is not an terribly on common thing for a homeless person to pick a corner they like for whatever reason, and brandish a sign asking for a handout. When I briefly glanced at his sign, I read: "I HAVE NOTHING." I thought, "Yes, you do. You at least have a dirty grungy backpack you carry your things in." He obviously had something.
Something about him continued to grab my focus, he intrigued me in a way a couldn't completely grasp, but I kept up my guard for safety sake. I didn't feel there was anything I could really do for him. I don't carry money to the gym, though I did consider the thought of taking a couple of bucks with me for his troubles.One day, as I passed him, and he did what I feared he would do: engaged contact with me. He shook his sign at me.
"No one reads my sign!"
"Okay."
"No one READS my sign!"
"That's because it isn't true," I declared as I scurried on my way.
On the way back home, I chose to walk on the other side of the street, as one altercation with this man is plenty for one day. When I am across the street from him I read his sign. What it actually said was: GIVE ME NOTHING.

The truth of the matter is he was right: no one reads his sign. I made the assumption that he wanted a handout, I did not truly look at him. He was a bum and I did my best to ignore him.

I never got the chance to talk to him about his sign, or the lesson he gave me. I never saw him again. A dirty angel appeared in the City of Angels and passed out truths to anyone who would just read the sign- then just as quickly disappeared. It is in moment like these where I find the true beauty of life. It is in events like this where the truth is revealed to me in a finite state. It is unrefutable. It is brilliant. It is awing, and above all... humbling.