On a day that is difficult, I try to approach and help someone who looks to be having a rough time of their own. He was sitting on the sidewalk outside the bank at Union Square. He was perhaps early 20’s, and beside him was a carefully-lettered sign asking for donations. He ran his hands over his head and down his face as I passed by. I saw he was having the kind of day I understood. I stopped, turned around and approached him. I dropped some paper money in his cup. Then I stooped to ask him how he got to be here, asking for help. His story was so heartfelt: he knew that work was light in the winter, he is a spackler* and painter, but now spring was here; someone stole his phone and his clothes at the shelter and all his contacts were gone. He has a good work ethic and if he could just find work he could get above this. He was deeply discouraged. In asking about his family, he said his mother was in Florida, but she wasn’t able to help him. That he had no one around here, and yes, he was born here in Brooklyn. When asked, he told me his name. I listened, he wound down his story. I offered that his sign was so well lettered, it was clear to see he had ability and was there a way to re-letter his sign so as to attract work? [I have no idea what another should be doing to get to where they need to be, but I do know that one can feel so depleted that insights that might have been there, vanish from the brain. Someone to talk to, to hear oneself think can often help.] Before I left him, he thanked me for talking. So often he said, everyone is up there, and I’m down here. How literal and figuratively that often is.
*spell check keeps saying it is misspelled. so I put it in google. More information than I wanted. What I mean here is someone who primes a wall for painting.. he used the word thusly.