Sometimes I wish I could make people walk a mile in somebody else's shoes.
I saw a girl panhandling in the subway station this morning, when I was going out for breakfast. She looked like a teenager. No more than twenty years old, anyway. And she was pregnant - really pregnant, by the looks of her, like...about to have a baby any day now. She was asking, over and over, to everybody who walked by her on their way out, "can you spare a dollar?" Just the same thing, over and over, trying to reach anybody who had some cash and was willing to help, until she just turned and leaned against the wall of the escalator next to her for a few seconds - and then she started back up again. And almost everyone just walks by her, not making eye contact, like if they don't look at her she won't actually be there.
I've written and rewritten a bunch of stuff over and over here, because I can't stop thinking about that girl, and how people try to make her be invisible. I work really hard at not getting angry anymore, but And I think I'm just going to have to give up on saying anything else and try doing the Walking Kata for an hour or so instead.
[Filtered to Audrey Parker] Do you have any time open in your schedule this afternoon? Not for work. Or, I guess, work for you. I just need to talk to someone who doesn't know me. [/filter]