State Street...

I've been meaning to write this piece for over a week now, and yes it is somewhat related to the most interesting urban-like area of Madison, Wisconsin. As to the what, well... it all started on a sunny, but cool, first-week-of-November day. I had just entered State Street from the Memorial Library food-court-cum-square, when my eyes met those of one of the regulars who, as is his habit, was squatting on the sidewalk, right in front of the Walgreens entrance, selling copies of the Street Pulse -Madison's Homeless Cooperative Newspaper.
Sticking to our usual routine, I nodded and said hi. Merlin -that's his nom de plume- smiled and asked if I wanted a paper, and I responded no. But, then we began free-styling... I inquired, "So how is everything?" And his response was, "Not too bad, I'm trying to make some money to pay the homeless shelter. It's getting cold and I'd hate to be kicked out -or something very close to that.
How would you respond to that? As far as I'm concerned, there is just one way, and it involves buying that paper. So, I did, and by doing so, (and I will not go into how I felt about it, whether it was the right thing to do, or not, NGOs doing their deed in Africa come to mind) I came to learn that the Street Pulse doesn't actually have a fixed price. No, you pay as much as you want/can.
Now, and as to the reason for my sharing this story of mine, (and setting aside the fact that I enjoyed the paper's content, especially Merlin's Column,) I have been struggling to understand Merlin's choice of life style. On the one hand, we have over-achievers who will not quit until they get a good ulcer, or a cardiac infraction, and I think I can place myself within this group, and on the other we have people who maintain the status quo, no matter what the status quo is. I understand that each one of us is a web of complexities, and that there are so many reasons why what is is so much more complicated than what we perceive, but I just cannot understand how someone as articulate, intelligent, and sociable as Merlin can go on selling newspapers in front of Walgreens, on State Street, year after year, (I've been here for five long ones and so has he,) instead of trying, and maybe he is trying harder than I could ever try, but I don't know that, I don't see that... I see him there, and the bottom-line is over a billion famished souls would, literally, sell their souls to Beelzebub to be where he is, meaning in the US of A, so as to have a shot at whatever version of the American dream they happen to adhere to. This world of ours is complicated, ripe with failure, brimming with potential, dampened with sorrow, brightened with joy -and in the end who am I to judge Merlin, or anyone else.
Be well, and remember that what you are is way more than what you're showing.
Seeking the sun that shines within