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Monday, 2 November 2015

TODAY I DISCOVERED SOMETHING ABOUT MYSELF I AM ASHAMED OF

There is a man sleeping at a bus stop near my daughter's school, 200 meters from my home.

You must understand that we live in a privileged residential area, in what is considered the very best municipality in the country, with the highest level of education, the best infrastructures, and the highest income bracket.

I am not wealthy, alas, very far from it, and sometimes (often) struggle to make ends meet, I don't own a home here, I rent-share one. I know how close I walk to the edge. 

I and a lot of other people just like me and I am ashamed to say I flinched. I wanted to look away. His poverty embarrassed me. It seemed out of place there. 

Surely there is somewhere more appropriate to be homeless? I thought that. I did. I thought this ugly thing,

But I made myself lift my head, smile, and greet the man who had laid out his blanket on the bus-stop bench, just as I would anyone else from the neighborhood who might be sitting waiting for the bus.

I told myself that it could be me, with the neatly packed bags and the blanket. All it takes to be destitute and alone is a slip on the banana peel of Fate.

MC

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