Encounter at Kendall

[Xipe Totec]

Coming out of a company meeting, more layoffs announced.

Not me (this time).

Heading home in the evening rush hour.

I'm halfway down the steps to Kendall MIT station.

There is a man with a young boy, perhaps 6 ot 7 years old.

The man is holding a sign, which I manage to read as I race down the stairs to catch a train that's already arriving.

"Homeless man and son. Please help"

I continue racing to the gate, but before I cross the turnstile, I read the destination:

Braintree. Not my train. I can wait.

I stop, check my wallet, and see a five dollar bill and a couple of ones.

I walk back up the steps, toward the man and his son.

Both are dressed, barely warm enough for the weather.

Dark complexions but Caucasian. Mediterranean? Possibly.

Hard to tell; there is a yellow-gray tinge to their gaunt faces.

They both look at me apprehensively; they don't know what to make of me.

I can see they are not used to the attention, or their position on fortune's wheel.

I grab the five and drop it on the man's coin bucket; an orange plastic Gatorade container.

The boy looks surprised. The man looks embarrassed.

With downcast eyes the man mumbles thank you.

I go back to into the station to wait for the next train.

I have a lump in my throat, and by the time my train arrives, my eyes are watering.

[Parche]

1. Bush's economy

:hi: :hug:

[Xipe Totec]

4. Indeed!

Not much that I can add to that statement!

:hi:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. History is clear:

Either fix this sort of thing or the country will inevitably suffer the long-term and usually violent consequences.

You can only push the social envelope on these kinds of things so far, and the scum that has risen to the top have exceeded all limits.

[Xipe Totec]

3. I felt as if I had stepped into a Steinbeck novel

It was heart wrenching and disconcerting.

They looked like Okies.

[bobbolink]

6. It's Dickens all over again----including the Scrooge mentality!

I've been thinking a lot of A Christmas Carol, as the play is produced in Denvoid every year.

I really hope that this year, people will see the U.S. in it, and stop thinking of it as "a period piece".

Thank you so much for sharing this... and "God Bless Us, Everyone"!

[Naturyl]

7. Are there no WORKHOUSES?

It's amazing how "Scrooged" our society has become...

[tosh]

5. Thank you, Xipe T.

Thank you for your compassion.