Word On The Street

Henry David Thoreau once wrote: “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.” In the city, one keeps moving from point A to point B, having to get somewhere by sometime for someone or some reason or another. We condition ourselves to ignore the panhandlers, as there are so many of them. We avoid even those who ask us for the time (as if only personal testimony thereof is available).

But what if one person didn't want anything from anybody?

Such was the man whom yours truly met this morning, near the Farragut North Station in downtown Washington. He agreed to have his picture taken. I never got his name, let alone anything else about him. Maybe he is homeless, or jobless. Maybe he is neither, and simply made himself look indigent to see the reaction. He got at least one, not to mention this month's Tip of the Black Hat.

And so it goes ...