I was walking downtown late one afternoon, the kind of gray, tired day where everyone seemed to be in a hurry but nowhere in particular. Near the corner by a small grocery store, I noticed a homeless man sitting on the curb. His coat was thin, his shoes looked like they\u2019d survived too many winters, and his beard was more gray than brown now.<\/p>\n
I stopped for a moment, reached into my pocket, and pulled out my wallet. I thumbed through it slowly, as if I were negotiating with myself. Finally, I slid out a ten-dollar bill and held it in my hand.<\/p>\n
Before giving it to him, I hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I give you this money,\u201d I asked, trying to sound casual, \u201care you going to spend it on beer instead of food?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked up at me, not offended\u2014just tired.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said calmly. \u201cI had to stop drinking years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
That caught me off guard. I shifted my weight and glanced down at the bill again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell then,\u201d I said, not quite ready to give up, \u201cwill you use it to go fishing instead of buying dinner?\u201d<\/p>\n
He let out a short laugh, more of a breath than a sound, and shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he replied. \u201cI don\u2019t waste time fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he paused, looked back at the street, and added, \u201cI spend all my time just trying to stay alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
That one stuck with me. I cleared my throat and tried to lighten the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright,\u201d I said, thinking hard. \u201cWhat about hunting? Will you spend this money on hunting equipment?\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared at me like I\u2019d asked if he planned to buy a yacht.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you nuts?\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cI haven\u2019t gone hunting in twenty years!\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded slowly, as if all the pieces had finally fallen into place. I folded the ten-dollar bill back into my wallet and snapped it shut.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d I said, \u201cin that case, I\u2019m not going to give you the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyebrows rose slightly\u2014confusion mixed with disappointment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut,\u201d I continued, \u201cI am going to take you home.\u201d<\/p>\n
He blinked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can take a hot shower,\u201d I said. \u201cUse a clean towel. Sit at a table. And then you can have a really terrific dinner\u2014one cooked by my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time, he looked genuinely stunned.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour wife?\u201d he asked carefully. \u201cWon\u2019t she be furious with you for bringing a homeless man home like that?\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled, already picturing the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry about it,\u201d I replied.
\u201cIt\u2019s important for her to see what a man looks like after he\u2019s given up drinking, fishing, and hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was walking downtown late one afternoon, the kind of gray, tired day where everyone seemed to be in a hurry but nowhere in particular. Near the corner by a small grocery store, I noticed a homeless man sitting on the curb. His coat was thin, his shoes looked like they\u2019d survived too many winters, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8763,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8761\/revisions\/8763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}