hardluck13

sometimes the most simple and innocent things are the most inspiring. i was on the street tonight having a cigarette not really paying attention to the homeless guy sleeping 10 feet away. that kind of thing, it's just a part of life here and always has been. anyhow what drew my attention to him was a little girl, that came out of a nearby building with her mother. the two of them walked over to this man carrying what looked like a bunch of junk. the little girl bent down and shook his shoulder gently until he woke up with a bit of jump. the girl did not jump or flinch she just knelt beside him and smiled. he sat up a bit and looked very confused. i imagine he figured it was the cops or someone just hassling him for the hell of it. he looked from the little girl to the mother then back at the little girl and said "all right little one, do you need help"? the little girl said "uh uhh, i brought you soup"! her mom came set her stuff down and i saw it was a couple of blankets and a small bag. she reached in and pulled out a take out container filled with what i assume was noodle soup and some bread. the little girl took the food from her mother and gave to the man and said "here mister eat this it's hot and it's my favorite" the man looked at the mother and said she's been watching you out the window and would go to sleep because she was worried that you were cold and hungry. the man smiled at the girl and said "thank you my friend, you were right i am very hungry" the girl asked the man "why don't you go to your mom's house and get food then"? he chuckled and told her, that his mom was far away and to old to cook. she then asked him why he was sleeping on the sidewalk. he looked at her for a couple of seconds and then told her that it helped his back. that made me laugh a bit and the little girl just said "my thumb hurts". at this point her mother put the two blankets on the mans legs and said here i hope this helps, and there's two peanut butter sandwiches in in the bag which she placed next to him. the man said "thank you so much, no one ever does this thank you" the mom stood up and held her hand out to the girl, who quickly hugged the the man and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. the man looked at her with a big toothless smile and said "thank you angel, you really made and this old man happy" the little girl said "good night" grabbed her mother's hand and they walked back into their building. now this girl couldn't have been more than 4 or five years old, but she wasn't grossed out or afraid of this guy. it was touching to see. her mother seemed fairly amused throughout the whole thing which only took about 5 minutes. when they left the man started in on the soup and bread looking even more confused though he was still smiling and laughing to himself. as i stood there watching him eat the soup i realized how syndical and jaded i've become with age. when i was a teenager i lived in jersey about 10 minutes away from philly. my friends and i used to steal the bagels that were delivered at 3 am from a shop across the street from our favorite diner. they came in a huge garbage bag it was weird. anyhow, we'd take them to philly and give them to all the homeless people we saw till we were out. in the winter we would take old blankets too. now we weren't the activist types, or even close to it. we were the exact opposite, but for some reason we would do this every so often. now that i'm older i think i'm better than most people with the homeless but not how i was. i think it may be time to go give out some coffee and blankets. i'm by far not rich, i'm not even well off, but i'm not homeless. i think it's good when something reminds you that little things can be pretty big to someone else. i used to ask the guys begging outside the bodegas if they wanted a sandwich, but i don't anymore. i got tired of the guys who would push for a hero or something too expensive. i became jaded. well i'd like to thank this little girl and her mother for being decent humans, and reminding me that it doesn't take much to help out a fellow human being.