A Random Conversation That Comes To Mind

“Would you speak to a homeless man?” my friend Linda, a classmate at UCT, once asked. It was in the midst of a two-in-the-morning conversation on, well…everything.

“Sure, why not? I have, before,” I replied.

“Would you look him in the eyes?” he delves, inquiring with such conviction that I suspected he’d been homeless, before. Linda came from a very poor family and often mentioned how he’d “been through so much.”

“Ahh...yeah…”

“Would you respect him? A man sitting there – filthy, with nothing…lying on the street? Would you say hello to him in the mornings? Would you ask him about his day?”

“I want to be homeless for three months in Brazil,” butts in Jay, a third friend, out of nowhere. He is staring at the wall. Jay’s mother was the vice-mayor of a nearby province. His family was heavily involved in the anti-apartheid struggle and now, in his early twenties, he’s being reared and recruited by the South African parliament.

“Listen to this one…” foreshadows Linda, with a smile.

“Okay,” I say, laughing. “Tell me…why do you want to be homeless…and why Brazil?”

“Because no one knows me there…and because I feel I’d learn so much about human beings by intentionally putting myself in the middle of ‘An Impoverished Nowhere.’ No safety nets. Nothing. I think I’d be able to better relate to masses of people. It would make me a better politician, I think, and I’ve given it lots of thought. I’m so serious.”

“Hmm…you may be right,” I begin, pondering the idea. “I wonder what would happen if every politician did that? An initiation process, of sorts. It would change the caliber of what it means to be in politics, certainly.”

Linda laughs. “We need to start a trend!”

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